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User:Chessrook44/Unforseen Gifts

2012-02-13T04:11:32Z

Chessrook44:

== Lester's Tales 3: Unforseen Gifts ==

'''November 30th, 2005'''

Snow. Frozen crystals of ice fallen from the sky during winter. Covering the land with a blanket of white and granting people the ability to throw snowballs, make snow angels, and in extreme cases, give lucky students a day off from school. But not today.

Today the snow provided challenges and frustrations of its own to me. Being one of the Changed, the shoes I put on were never actually worn, meaning the rags I had wrapped around my paws to keep out the dirt were getting soaked. Not only that, but I left pawprints in the snow instead of footprints, meaning I had to drag my feet through the snow or I would raise too many questions, which made my paws even wetter. And finally, I was bundled up in a heavy jacket and pants and overheating a bit due to my fur. Sure, I could probably go outside with just a shirt and no jacket, but I still had to hide THAT oddity, especially since I already had a reputation for a low cold tolerance. The end result left me a very moody vixen as I walked back to school from lunch.

The past few months had proceeded relatively boringly, and nothing special seemed to happen, either in the Changed community or in my life here at home. I had hoped to find an alumni of the school who had Changed at the annual Thanksgiving party, but no such luck, nothing but humans. Home, meanwhile, went as usual. I went to school, came home, closed myself in my room, and didn’t come out much. OK so I’m a bit of a loner in person, but I was spending all my time online and it made hiding the Change a bit easier.

I tried to knock some of the snow off my paws as I walked into the school building, but succeeded only in stubbing my toe, the snow sticking firmly to the rags and making them wetter as they melted. I sighed and walked further in, sitting on a chair and opening my jacket to cool off, taking out my laptop to check on the Changed forums.

The NYChanged forum had gained in members in the past few months, reaching around 40 posters with more known to have been found, but it still seemed small for the city and the forum was relatively quiet, aside from a brief scare when a hacker somehow managed to get past the captcha and proceeded to troll us for a couple days. Fortunately, a simple switch of the identification picture and a ban put a stop to that, and we hadn’t seen him since.

Moving to the Changed Network, I leaned forward as I found a private message sent to me. Confused, as I hadn’t posted too much in the forums, I clicked it and opened it up.

----

To: RiskySoldier88

From: NPKitty

Subj: Furgonomics

Greetings. I am Nicole Palova, CEO and head of the newly-formed Future Ergonomics Corporation, or Furgonomics as we shall be known in the Changed community. We at Furgonomics have listened to comments about the difficulties of living in a world not built for tails, fur, claws, and hooves, and have taken it upon ourselves to become the first corporation made solely to solve the difficulties caused by the Change, and to provide for the needs of the Changed. We have already begun production of objects such as tail-friendly chairs and clothes, however our next project will require help from members of the Changed community itself for long-term field testing and because of your interest in the product we would like your assistance in this matter.

Our current project is to create shoes for the Changed, a difficult project for such a large variety of paws and hooves, but one we believe will have import in the future. If you wish to participate in our study, please reply to this message with your name, species, and e-mail included, and we will send you a form providing information we need you to fill out for a proper fit. All paw/hoofshoes will be provided to you free of charge, pending proper feedback.

Thank you for your assistance.

----

I read through the message again, smiling. A company for Changed needs! And they were making shoes, in addition to other things. I hadn’t had a problem with chairs, since many school chairs had holes in the back anyway, but I had heard complaints from others, and providing clothes is something that would save time for many Changed that couldn’t sew. I tried to think of what made them decide to pick me for this project, when I decided it was probably the topic I had posted regarding the Shoe Field. One or two people had replied that I seemed a bit obsessed with shoes, but in actuality, I just didn’t want to get my feet dirty. And they were already cold and wet from the melted snow. Somehow I doubted that was too healthy.

Though I couldn’t help but groan at the name (Furgonomics? Was everything in the future going to become a bad pun?) I sent a message back with my information. I then read over the forums further, eventually finding a post about Furgonomics that explained more or less what was said in the message, and providing a bit more information on the company. Nicole Palova was a snow leopardess in charge of the company, which was based in Chicago. Fittingly, since that was where the first Changed showed up. While its purpose for the Changed was obvious, to the public eye its purpose was to find cheaper, more ergonomically sound objects. After making a few posts of my own, I closed down my laptop and headed off to my next class, resolving to check my mail as soon as I got home.

----

The next couple hours passed in something of a blur as I tried not to think too much of Furgonomics and focus on my classes, but it wasn’t always easy with my eagerness dancing about in the back of my head. Finally I managed to get home and, after eating dinner with the family, I went onto my computer and found the form sitting in my e-mail. Apparently it had to be printed out and sent or faxed in, so I quickly did so and went back into my room to look it over.

The first half of the form made sense in what needed to be filled in. Name, current gender (with a checkbox if TG’d), species, age, and so forth. Then there was a diagram of a footpaw, with lines showing all the areas to be measured, including width, length, claw size, height, distance from bottom of paw to heel, from top of paw to heel, and several other measurements I didn’t realize I’d need until now. There was also a note to provide photos as well if possible, as such might help with shaping the shoes, but that was something I probably wouldn’t be able to provide.

The measuring would be easy, but getting the measuring tape without questions being asked wouldn’t be… and in fact wasn’t. My mother caught me trying to take the measuring tape out of her sewing kit, but by being vague about what I was using it for (measuring) I managed to get away without too many questions. The next half hour was spent with me measuring and re-measuring my paws as precisely as I could get over the fur, until finally I got all the data plugged in and the forms filled out. Come Saturday, I’d take a walk out to the post office and send the letter out to Furgonomics. Already I couldn’t wait.

'''December 3rd, 2005'''

Bloody weather. Why did it have to snow again?

Another two inches had come down last night, leaving a fresh untouched blanket over the city. Fun for many kids, but once again frustrating for me as I would leave fresh pawprints, not to mention the soaking… pah, it wouldn’t matter in a couple weeks. I was walking down to the post office now to send the forms I had received to Furgonomics.

Hopping up the stairs, I walked inside, only a few other people out today, and took care of it, sticking a stamp on the envelope and slipping the letter into the out of town slot. Smiling after accomplishing my job, I walked back outside and headed back down the stairs, deciding to get some lunch at Burger King while I was out.

As I pressed the button for the crosswalk, however, I heard a voice coming up to me. “Hey, hey you!” I turned to find a woman walking up to me. “Can I talk with you for a minute?” She had an intrigued look on her face, and I started hearing alarms going off in my head.

“Possibly, I’ll start counting down the seconds,” I said with a slight smirk, trying to put some humor into the comment.

The woman moved up to me. “Sorry I just wanted to ask. Are you one of those…” she glanced around, then leaned in and whispered, “…animal people?”

My eyes widened, but I managed to catch myself before my jaw dropped. “Er, animal people?” I asked, acting confused. “What are you talking about? Don’t I look human to you?”

“Well yes you do,” the woman replied, “but you left pawprints on the stairs over there instead of footprints.” She held up a hand. “Don’t worry if you are, your secret is safe. My husband became a deer two years ago, managed to prove it by stepping in some mud. We haven’t seen any others except on television since.”

It took me a few moments to process that. “I… yes, yeah I am. Um, I’d rather you not spread that around so…”

The woman looked relieved. “Oh don’t worry about that. I’m just glad I managed to find one of you. We’ve had no idea what was going on since it happened.”

I turned as the crossing light changed. “Well come with me to the Burger King and I’ll try and give you a briefing. You can call me LC. What’s your name?” I held out a hand for her, and she shook it. “Bethany. My husband is Martin. Thank you so much for talking with me.” Her hand held mine a bit longer than needed, the thumb moving over its back. “What er… just what are you anyway?”

“A vi- er, a fox. I’m a fox. I take it you don’t know of the network or anything?” She shook her head. I figured I probably shouldn’t get into the TG changed, they’d find out about it on their own and it would make the conversation much easier. Taking my hand back, the two of us walked into the Burger King and I got my food (she had already eaten), the two of us then moving to sit down in a booth. “Alright,” I said, taking a bite of my burger. “What did you want to know?”

“Well what’s going on?” Bethany asked. “Why is Martin a deer, why are you a fox, and how come nobody can see it?”

I let out a sigh. “Good question. Quite frankly, none of us know why or how it’s happening. We don’t know who it’ll happen to, or what’s causing it. All we know is that it happens every August 17th, and twice as many change every year. No reason, no cause, no explanation, no nothing. We’re just trying to cope as well as we can. And before you ask, yes, it IS permanent.”

“How many of you are there? I can’t see you, but Martin says he’s seen you on television now and then. There can’t be that many of you.”

“Right now there’s about a quarter of a million of us worldwide, though most of us are in North America. At least as far as I can tell, I personally haven’t spoken with anyone who’s not American or Canadian.” Chewing over another bite of burger, I looked back at her. “I can give you a couple links to the forums we use to communicate. Do you have a pen or paper?” She nodded and handed me a pen and a blank envelope from her purse. I wrote the address for the NYChanged and main Network forums. “You probably wouldn’t be able to get in, there’s a captcha image that you wouldn’t be able to see properly until you Change, but your husband should be able to get past it.”

Bethany nodded as she took the papers back. “Well, thank you for the info. I’m sure he’ll be glad to find all this out.” I smiled. “You’re welcome. Take care, and send him my regards. We’re all in this together.” She shook my hand again and headed out while I finished up my meal.

That evening when I went on the NYChanged forums I found that Martin had indeed joined up. He was glad to have finally gotten in contact with us, and thanked me for helping him and his wife. I sent a reply to him, and soon after closed down the forums to go to sleep, thoughts of various things running through my head.

'''December 27th, 2005'''

Christmas came and went, and like any year I got some nice things and some that were needed but not desired. Clothes, that is. But it was two days later that I got the present I had been waiting for.

I was sitting in my room playing one of my new games when my mom called me. “Les! You have a package!” Pausing the game I went into the living room, grinning as I realized what it probably was. As I took the box, my mom gave me an odd look. “What’s Future Ergonomics?”

I looked up at her, hesitating a bit as my mind tried to think of something to say. “Oh! It’s um… it’s a new company. They were looking for people to test some of their things and I volunteered. I… figured why not?” Mentally I hit myself for not having a better excuse, and my Mom looked at me.

“You’re seventeen. Why would they let you test it?” She said, looking over me. “Oh well, they… need people from all age groups! Yeah so, I figured I could. Hope that’s alright.” I tried to give a grin.

“And what did they send you?” she asked again, looking down at the box. “Oh, er, shoes.” I said. “More… ergonomical shoes.” She eyed me for a bit longer before nodding with an “alright” and I dashed into my room before she could ask any more questions.

I closed the door and set to opening the box, taking the shoes out of the packing material. To me it almost looked like a high-top boot with the foot part being grossly undersized… if it had been made for a human foot, that is. The part the foot went in was small, but looked about the right size for my foot, thankfully. The rest of it stretched upwards, laces going all along it to the top, complete with tongue underneath. Deciding to test it out, I slipped my foot inside, and felt some of the soft padding within. The laces went up to just under my raised heel, and I tied it up snugly and stood to see how it felt.

For a first try at a boot for Changed, they didn’t do that bad a job. Some parts were rubbing against my fur a little oddly, and the end seemed to be pressing against my claws (although it had been a while since I last clipped them) but otherwise it seemed to be doing its job properly. I slipped on the other boot and walked into the living room, standing before my mom. “So? How do they look?”

She looked down at the boots as I turned around. “Those are… odd looking boots. How do they feel?” I smiled. “A little odd, but I think I’ll get used to it. Most shoes do feel a little odd at first after all.”

She nodded, and I walked back into my room, removing the boots and looking over them. Glad to finally have something on my feet that wasn’t rags, I put them away and returned to my game, looking forward to when I would actually be wearing them when I went back to school.
[[Category:Story]][[Category:Paradise]][[Category:Chessrook44]]{{DEFAULTSORT:Unforseen Gifts}}

User:Chessrook44/Unforseen Reactions

2012-02-13T04:09:30Z

Chessrook44:

== Lester's Tales 2: Unforseen Reactions ==

'''September 7th, 2005'''

“Ak… essshTODAY IS” *click* “Blasted alarm…”

Grumbling, my hand sliding off the alarm clock and looking at the time, I sat up and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, yawning widely. Glancing down at myself, I got up, climbed down the ladder of my bed, and headed into the bathroom with my clothes to freshen up, my tail flicking about behind me.

It had been three weeks since Change Day, when I and about a hundred thousand other people around the world had changed into strange hybrids of human and animal. And yet despite that, nobody who hadn’t changed was any wiser thanks to the Veil, as it was informally known, that disguised how we felt, looked, and sounded to those that had not changed. It had been two weeks since I had learned about the rest of the Changed in the Network, and in that time I had been learning as much as I could.

As I relieved myself, I glanced down at my now-female body and again thanked ROB (As I heard some people refer to whatever was controlling the change) for granting me a female body. I wasn’t a transsexual, mind you, but the stories I’d heard about the “gymnastics” others had to perform after changing made me glad I could just sit down and avoid all those problems. A silly reason, perhaps, but I’d take it where I could get it before the Visitor in Red came sometime in the future. And I was NOT looking forward to that.

I then proceeded to tug on my clothes, briefs under jeans, neither pulled up all the way in the back due to my tail. I’d read up on the various tips and instructions for how to modify pants for the various kinds of tails out there, from short to long, fluffy to bare, thin to fat, but I couldn’t use any of them. I was still in high school and living with my parents, and they got on my case for the smallest hole in my knee. As such, I just dealt with leaving it a bit low.

The shirt went on next, and as was common, I shivered a bit as the fabric rubbed over the front of my chest. I had been a guy before the change and the rest of the world still saw me as a guy despite my assets, so I ended up having ill-fitting clothes. And despite what other TG on the boards would say, there was no way in heaven or hell I was going to wear a bra and panties while I still appeared a guy. I may have been taking the change better than most other TG, but I still had some masculinity. And wearing my men’s clothes helped me feel better inwardly. Plus, again, it solved a laundry issue.

After dressing up I walked into the kitchen and put a pop-tart in the toaster oven while I started feeding the cat, again thankful we had him. While the Veil hid how I looked, it didn’t hide what I left behind, and shed fur and odd smells WOULD be difficult to explain were it not for the fact that we had a grey and white cat (close enough to two out of three of my fur colors to let some of them slide) and the fact that my parents have been telling me my room smelled for years now. (Hey, it didn’t smell to me. I just kept it closed up whenever it wasn’t summer and overheating. I’ll just keep saying it doesn’t smell and nobody’s the wiser.). There were some other things I still had to watch out for, like my reddish fur if it fell anywhere or the fact I was taking shorter showers now, along with possible claw marks or other things, but again, I’d take what relief I could where I could find it. So far nobody had suspected anything.

Eventually, an hour later, the bus arrived, and I spent the next two hours on the bus with my mind wandering, tail curled into my lap as I was wont to do while sitting. I lived on the south coast of Long Island, but I went to an alternative school on the north coast for personal reasons and loved it there, the closeness of the students and faculty feeling like another family… which meant more difficulties trying to do the same things I always did. I couldn’t gallop through the halls anymore for example (I had odd habits, but I loved my strangeness) but I hoped they’d be too distracted by the silence to say anything.

I sighed as I thought of that, glancing down at my paws. Despite the years of changes, nobody had even tried to make shoes for furs. They saw no need when a majority of the Changed preferred to go barepaw or barehoof anyway, and the shoe field stopped any questions of why they were walking through the snow without worry of frostbite. Me, however, I just wanted to protect my paws from getting dirty or gum getting in my fur. I had seen a hopeful post from someone saying “We are looking into it”, but I had heard nothing more from them since.

Finally we arrived at the school and I stepped off the bus, looking over the small building. I had hopes that maybe one of the teachers or students had changed, and my mind went crazy with what I would do if one of them was changed. I walked in to the loungish area to wait for first period, sitting down and looking around. I was one of the earliest, as usual, and others would be in soon. I wondered if-

“OH MY GOD!”

My head whirled around at the voice. My first thought was “Did someone change?” but when I saw Jessie, another student and still human, I realized that wasn’t it. She was staring at me with pure shock and disbelief on her face. I blinked, feeling a little nervous. She couldn’t see me, could she? I’m wearing the same clothes, nothing is showing, I’m wearing my shoes, what could it be?

My answer came when she lifted an arm, pointed a finger directly at me, and cried out, “You got a NEW HAT!”

I exhaled and chuckled. Ah yes, that. My old hat I had been wearing for 11 years straight without fail, but due to extenuating circumstances had to retire it over the summer and get a new one. Considering how that hat sometimes seemed as much a part of me as feathers on a duck, the reaction made sense. “Yeah, new hat. Had to retire the old one,” I said, as my mind started thinking, ''This is going to be a fun year.''

The rest of the day proceeded as a day at school would usually go, barring the occasional shocked exclamation that I had changed my hat. Each time it happened, I rubbed my hat and inwardly grumbled about my ears folded up underneath it. Someday they’ll make hats for us furs, I thought, and when that day comes I’ll be… oh, maybe third in line. The hat thing, thankfully, added as a sort of distraction and nobody even noticed that some of my other oddities had let up.

Around lunch and after I got my daily pizza I took my laptop (Which the school thoughtfully provided us while we were there) and went online to check up on the two Changed forums I had joined. I sat with my back against a wall to make sure nobody looked, but nonetheless I kept a wary ear out for anyone coming up. The main site for the overall Changed Network was hopping with activity as usual, and we’d even found another couple changed in the last couple days with the start of school.

The NYChanged forum, however, remained silent and dead. Though NYC was one of the largest cities in the US, there didn’t seem to be enough Changed to really make it that active. Only myself, Eli the rabbit, and about a dozen others counted ourselves as changed in NYC and Long Island and posted on the boards, but considering the way the Change seemed to be spreading it made sense. There was only a little over 250 thousand of us at current estimation, and most seemed to be concentrated in the northern central US. Ah well, we’d get more in the coming years.

The rest of the day went uneventfully. I went to my classes, rode the bus home, had dinner, tucked some red hairs behind the couch, went on the IRC, and went to bed. A fairly dull day for one of the only furred people on Long Island, but it went well all things considered. I’m sure I’d have plenty of other problems in the future.

'''October 19th, 2005'''

Today was not going to be a fun day. Damn this change!

The school I was in never had a gym class, but instead went on physical trips once a month. I even enjoyed some of them, and at first didn’t think there would be any problems. Until they announced this trip: A brunch at Ihop, followed by bowling.

Normally I’d enjoy this, as I like bowling, but there was just one problem. The Shoe Field. Shoes just disappeared off my feet when I put them on, and despite keeping my claws trimmed they occasionally tapped on the ground or caught on carpets. This was going to be a challenge.

And deciding to be a bit more cruel, the Red Visitor had decided to stop by today and I was not in a good mood. And apparently I wasn’t doing a very good job of hiding it.

“Les, you alright?” I looked up and across the table at Stan, a bit of bacon hanging out of my mouth. “You’ve been acting kinda weird lately.”

I pulled the bacon in and nodded as I chewed, giving a smirk. “What, you mean I’m not normally weird?” I said with a chuckle, trying to play it off.

“Nah man,” Stan replied. “I mean you haven’t even been talking to anyone lately. Something eating you up?”

I shook my head. “No no, I’m fine. Been feeling a bit cruddy lately but it’s nothing. I’ll be fine, though I’ll probably suck once we start playing.”

Stan chuckled. “Not as badly as I will.” I smirked as I continued to eat my food. Oh Stan, you have no idea…

----

…and I have no idea how I’m going to bowl, I thought as we walked into the bowling alley. My ears pushed against my hat as they tried to flatten, both in nervous anticipation and in reaction to the constant echoing crashes of the other bowlers. After picking our lanes and a brief discussion of how many games we’d play and how we’d be doing everything from the teachers I headed up to get my shoes (fairly pointlessly for me I thought at first) only to get a very pleasant surprise.

As I approached the counter where two workers were handing out the shoes, I saw one had stopped and was staring at me with a shocked look on his muzzle. Yes muzzle, as he was a changed raccoon! A new one it seemed, considering the stare. Planting a smile on my face I got into the line for him and tried to motion for him to stop staring. It didn’t work too well however as he kept staring at me when he wasn’t helping someone else. When I finally got up to him I muttered, “Stop staring, people will think you’re hitting on me or something.”

His ears folded back as he looked at me. “I… I’m sorry miss I just… oh man, I thought I was going crazy! But you’re actually a-”

I waved my hands at him quickly. “Shshshshsh! Not so loud, alright? Everyone still sees us as guys. Men’s nine and a half please,” I said, a little louder on the last part.

His head tilted as he gave me an odd look, glancing down at my chest. “Men’s?”

I sighed and crossed my arms over my chest, closing my eyes. “Yes, Men’s. Just roll with it, alright? Some of us had a much more drastic change than others. And don’t worry, I’m going to try not to scuff up the lanes with my claws.”

The raccoon nodded and got the shoes, coming back and handing them to me. “Here you are, uh, sir. Oh and,” he leaned in towards me. “pick a ball with slightly larger finger holes. Otherwise you’ll break a claw and be in pain the rest of the day.” He showed be his hand, one of his claws on his fingers showing that he learned that the hard way.

I nodded back and decided to ask another question. “And the paws? Any suggestions there to reduce damage, since these shoes are just going to disappear?”

He gestured at a vending machine nearby. “Use the socks from the vending machine there and try not to get your claws caught. It’ll help a bit.” My reply was to glance down at my own fabric-covered paws, nod in thanks, take the shoes and walk off.

As I was looking through the bowling balls for one that seemed right, Stan came up behind me. “Dude, what were you talking with that guy about?” I winced, remembering Stan had been right behind me.

“Oh I ah, I was asking him some, er… tips for bowling.” God that was a lame excuse, even I didn’t believe it. Stan didn’t either and he tried to get more information out of me, but I brushed him off with the same excuse before grabbing a ball and heading down to the lanes.

The bowling itself went about as well as could be expected. Several times my claws felt like they might have scratched the flooring, a few times the ball arced up as it caught on a claw and slammed on the floor with a resounding and embarrassing BANG, and those problems along with my own inexperience combined to give me a whopping score of 14. Embarrassed, I quickly walked back to the raccoon while the others finished their game, beckoning him to an end of the counter.

“Alright, let me give you the short version,” I said to him. “Yes we’re really animal-people. There’s about 250 thousand of us worldwide about now, some of us are the wrong gender, it’s more or less permanent, we don’t know who or what’s causing it, and everyone else sees us as we were before we changed.”

“But what are we supposed to do?” he asked. “I mean I can’t live like this forever! What do I tell my wife?”

“Tell her what you want, some of us have been living this way for close to 20 years. Look, here’s some sites that should help,” I said, handing him a piece of paper with links to the main Network site and the NYChanged site, explaining them to him. “Listen, we’re all in this together, and there’s more of us every year. I’m sorry I can’t help you more, but it’s the best I can do right now.”

He sighed, his ears splaying out as he looked at the paper. “Right. Thanks for that anyway, I guess. At least now I know I’m not crazy, hmm?” He shook his head. “What’s your name anyway?”

“Lester, but call me LC,” I replied. “We use the initials to let other Changed know that we look like the opposite gender to the UnChanged.”

“So you were really a guy before this happened?” He looked down over me, eyes lingering on my chest. “And those are real?”

I placed a pair of fingers to my temple and sighed. “Yes I was a guy, yes I switched genders, and I’m only 17 so quit staring before your boss sees and gets REALLY wrong ideas, ok?” His eyes snapped back up and he nodded, the faint hint of a blush under his fur. “I gotta get back to the group, ok? Take care, and visit those sites. I mean it, it’ll help you cope a lot.” I waved back at him as I walked back to the group.

The rest of the trip went uneventfully, and I felt relieved that I didn’t have the lowest score of everyone there. Two others got lower scores than me, one at 9 and one got nothing but gutterballs, and that made me feel a bit better. After I got home and ate dinner that evening I logged on to the forums to find that the raccoon (whose name was Steven, it turned out) had already introduced himself and thanked me for finding him. After replying to his posts and giving what extra information I could I logged off and went to bed. Despite my anticipation over how badly the day could have gone, overall it went fairly well. Hopefully the coming days would go even better.
[[Category:Story]][[Category:Paradise]][[Category:Chessrook44]]{{DEFAULTSORT:Unforseen Reactions}}

User:Chessrook44/Unforseen Changes

2012-02-13T04:09:05Z

Chessrook44:

== Lester's Tales 1: Unforseen Changes ==

'''August 14th, 2005'''

“Here you are sir, have a nice day,” I said, handing the card to the customer in front of me before sitting back on the ground.

I was working again that day, much like any other, selling tickets for admission to the beach. Well ok, PUNCHING the tickets, actually. An older, more senior person was in the booth actually selling them. Sure the job barely paid minimum wage, but there weren’t many jobs available to a high-school student just about to enter his senior year. Ah well. Maybe I’d find a job of some sort while at college next year.

With the late-day lull in tourists again, I sat back, my mind once again wandering through the myriad of scenarios, thoughts, and fantastic events that went through my mind. I was a daydreamer, I admit it, and frequently wished one of those amazing scenarios would happen to me. Alas, the laws of physics themselves tended to say a definitive no to it, leaving me nothing more than a dreamer. Maybe the advent of virtual reality, if it was completed sometime in the future, would make it possible. And in the meantime, there was always roleplaying, even if I was new to it…

An hour or two later, and the day was over. Packing up my stuff, I walked over to my bike, letting out a cough as I got there… followed by another cough or two. “Les, you doing alright?” Allen, the cashier asked.

I nodded back. “Yeah, I’m fine. Probably nothing.” Strange… hope I’m not coming down with something.

'''August 16th, 2005'''

Goddangit, why the frick did I have to jinx it? And God was mocking me as well…

For the past two days, I’d been lying in bed or on the couch, with probably the third worst illness I’d ever had. Sure, I wasn’t quite coughing up bile, but I still felt absolutely horrible. My mom tried what she could, but there’s only so much a family member can do when one is sick. Give soup, the occasional kiss on the forehead, and promise of a trip to the doctor if it persists.

Of course, it also had to be raining today… which meant I would’ve had the day off from work with pay, except that I was sick and had already told them so, which meant no pay for today. Figures. The one day it rains all summer, and I have to be sick as a dog. Ugh… as it was I just hoped this flu or whatever it was went away tomorrow.

'''August 17th, 2005'''

Well, what do you know? Apparently my hopes were strong enough to be heard by whatever being struck me with the flu. I woke up this morning, early as always, feeling just like my old self, no sign of the nausea and cruddiness that had plagued me the past few days… though there was a strange feeling I had regardless. I shook it off and climbed down the ladder to my loft-bed… and almost stumbled. Huh, I must’ve been more tired than I thought. Shrugging, I went into the bathroom as I always did, hand rubbing a strange feeling I had on my head.

I’ll spare you details as to the timing, but suffice to say as I was in the bathroom I had the strangest feeling… like I had moved something on my head, air moving over it. I reached up to brush off whatever it was, only to stop as my hand hit something. I froze, fingers feeling an object that was wide where it met my head, tapering to a triangular point at the top, and hollow. And strangest of all, I could feel it. Not with my fingers, but with it itself, as if it was a part of me. Frantically, I took a few steps to the side and looked in the mirror to see… an ear. It was a triangular ear, with a mate on the opposite side, the outside covered in fine reddish fur. I stared, noticing that where my ears normally were was a flat expanse of skin, as if they were gone. Was I still sick? Was I hallucinating now? I was definitely going to have my mother take me to the doctor today… but despite it all, I found myself fascinated. Then I looked down.

My hands, at the time gripping the edge of the sink, were also changing, except that this time I could actually SEE the change progressing along them. And the feeling as it did… I can’t describe it, aside from a faint tingling at the line of change, clearly seen from the fine black fur creeping up my hand from my fingers, and watching as my nails faded away, sharpening into thin claws. I turned a hand over to find that the palms weren’t getting covered, instead getting replaced by some sort of fleshy pad. My mind struggled to make sense of it, and one of my scenarios popped into my head. It couldn’t be possible, but here it was in front of me. I resolved that I had to watch this through to the end, it was too unbelievable, but it was happening. That, or this was some marvelous hallucination… it felt too real to be a dream.

The change continued up my arms, black fur spreading over it until about my elbows, when it changed to a reddish color. As it did, I couldn’t help but notice that my hands and arms looked… a little different, aside from the fur. More slender, or sleek perhaps. I shook my head as the fur reached my shoulders, spreading across my bare torso, white fur popping up on the front. Transfixed I watched, then gripped the sink with my hands as I felt the changes reach several key points at once, signifying that a more radical change was taking place.

I groaned slightly as I felt my spine start lengthening, stretching outwards over the waistband of my boxers into a long tail, which immediately started growing long fur over it, fluffing itself up. The fur passed my neck, and my face started pushing outwards. I closed my eyes as the feeling washed over, gritting my teeth as they sharpened and stretched out, a slew of smells starting to fill my nose as it widened. My legs, to my unfortunate note, were also changing and warping, and though I couldn’t see it, from the way my heel lifted off the floor and my leg stretched, I knew I was taking the more animalistic of postures. Mentally I thanked whatever being was doing this that he hadn’t included any “sickly popping” sounds I had heard described in many an Animorphs book.

That was not all, though. The tingling, strange feeling lingered over two more areas. I felt a strange sense of loss between my legs that I won’t go into further detail about, while a feeling of growth and expansion settled around the upper portion of my torso. I kept my eyes closed, being a stickler for drama and wanting to wait to see everything until the change was completed soon after. I panted a bit from the exertion when I felt the tingling finally fade away into nothingness, and then finally opened my eyes.

My newly-elongated jaw dropped as I stared at myself in the mirror in disbelief. The fur had spread over my body, reddish in color except for a large area where it was white on my front, starting just at the underside of my new muzzle and stretching downwards between my thighs, and black fur covering my forearms and forelegs. The tail I had felt was long and bushy, tipped with white on the end, and I even gave it a twitch just to see if I could. My legs had changed, seeming to bend twice before coming to my toes. Walking was probably going to be tricky now, but at least I found myself able to stand alright. My face had a long muzzle, ending with a nose that allowed me to smell an amazing number of scents, although some of what I smelled in the bathroom now suggested this wasn’t necessarily a good thing.

The last thing however, was that I was no longer a Lester. Not exactly. While I was still me, at least as far as I was concerned mentally, my body had become female. My black hair had lengthened, ending down around my mid back, looking surprisingly good all things considered. Apparently my dandruff was gone. More importantly, however, two large breasts sat on my chest, or at least I assume they were large… the internet had ruined my perception of such things. Hefting them up in my hands briefly, I was amazed that I could feel WITH them, and a quick check between my legs confirmed my suspicions. I was a woman, and a fox—a literal fox—as well.

After a moment of disbelieving staring, I shook my head. I had become a vixen but now I had to deal with it. Strange as it may sound I had developed a procedure for if something like this happened. Step one was to see if the world around me had changed to fit. I read a lot of stories and webcomics, and such a situation had popped up in one or two. Besides, for all I knew I could’ve invisibly fallen through a portal in my sleep into a world of furries and changed to match the situation. And the best place to do that was the wall of family pictures outside.

After a couple experimental steps in the bathroom to make sure I still knew how to walk, the new claws on my toes tapping lightly against the tile, I opened the door and walked into the hall, looking over the family pictures. Uncle, aunt, parents, me… no change. Whatever had happened had only affected me and not history, which made this more difficult to deal with. Step two was going to be-

“Morning Lester. You feeling better?”

I froze. Crap. My father had just woken up. Telling my parents somehow wasn’t supposed to be until step three or four! Then I noticed the casuality of his tone and looked at him. He was looking right at me, yawning slightly, and didn’t seem to see anything different. “Er, somewhat, dad. I’m not feeling as crappy but I’m still feeling a little odd…” I said to him, my voice sounding strange to me as I looked at him. He looked back at me. Well, slightly over me, I noticed that I had lost an inch or two. Strange, shouldn’t he still be looking in my eyes?

“Think you’re well enough for work today?” he asked me.

I shook my head. “No, no, I… I think I’ll stay home again today, thanks.”

My father nodded, then headed back into his room and closed the door, likely to take a shower. I went back into my room and closed the door. Something was wrong here. The world hadn’t changed to match what happened, but my father acted as if nothing was wrong. He didn’t even react to my voice! Could he just not see what happened to me? Despite my hours of daydreaming I had never thought of what I’d do if something like this happened.

Shaking my head, I resolved to get on my computer and complete step two anyway. I’d try the TV later. For now, though, I logged onto IRC and started checking various news sites to see if I was the only one affected.

Unfortunately, no such luck. The news was unaware of anything, although considering how soon after my own change it was the online pages might not update for a while. And the few people on IRC, despite my vague hints, didn’t react any different. Either my hints were poor, or I was the only one who changed. And nobody could see me. Great. Dealing with being a fox and a newly-made Leslie without anyone able to help or see me. This was going to be fun.

A while later, after double checking everything and feeling my stomach rebelling against me, I headed out to the living room, father watching the news while my mother was walking in from her room. After giving her the same reply as I gave my dad regarding how I was feeling, she went into the kitchen to make me some eggs. I sat down on the couch and watched the Today Show with my dad.

It was during one of the panning shots of the crowd outside the New York studio that I thought I saw it. Surprised, I grabbed the remote for the Tivo and rewound it a bit, pausing the scene. “Les? What are you doing?” blinking, I glanced at my dad before looking back at the screen.

“Oh, ah, I thought I saw someone I recognized. That guy over there, next to the woman with the “I love Al Roker” sign… he look familiar to you?” I pointed at the wolf in the audience, smiling and waving at the camera frantically.

My father shook his head. “No, haven’t seen him. Who’s he look like?” I blinked as he clearly couldn’t see the wolf either, and shook my head.

“I don’t know, he just… looked kinda familiar. Sorry.” Shaking my head to clear it I unpaused the TV, going through what had just happened.

I wasn’t the only one who had changed. At the very least, there was a wolf man in New York City (I chuckled as I thought of a werewolf in Manhattan. Wasn’t that the name of a movie or something?) and my dad couldn’t see him either. And if there were two of us, there might be more. But I had no idea how to get in contact with any of them. I sighed. My best hope was clearly to hope he or some other person who changed came down to the beach in the next few weeks. And that they came to my booth. On a day I worked. Well, at least I worked five days a week…

I closed my eyes as I sat back, wincing slightly before pulling my tail out from behind me, disguising it as brushing something I saw off the couch. The rest of the day was spent trying to figure out what I would do now, what I would have to change without seeming different, how I’d wear hats, and finding out that none of my few friends on MySpace had seemed to change, nor any of the many people on IRC. I went to bed that night, irritated at how I wouldn’t really be able to sleep on my back anymore with this tail, hoping that whatever had happened, I would have my answers soon.

'''August 18th, 2005'''

“Pk… Cshhhhhhh…” went the radio before I turned it off. Never could get a station on the dang thing, only static and loud noises that were supposed to be voices. Blinking the sleep out of my eyes, my arm fell across my chest… a bit sooner than it should have I thought… then I looked down, seeing the bare breasts with my black-furred arm atop them. “Oh right,” I muttered to myself. Well that settled that, this wasn’t a one day thing… which meant that I could start worrying again…

The day before I had been thinking of new scenarios and things I’d have to deal with as a fox and a woman that nobody could see. What I’d do if someone could see me, how I’d convince others without seeming insane, whether I actually WAS insane and having a vivid hallucination… but the thing I was most fearful of was that this was permanent. Sure I had always envisioned things like this would happen, but only as a trip into the weirdness that I could always return from. Permanency scared me. I closed my eyes and tried to put the thought out of my head. Permanent or not, it looked like a nice day, which meant I had to go to work.

Getting dressed showed the first of the difficulties to deal with. My pants and briefs DID fit… relatively… but my tail was keeping me from pulling it all the way up. That would be irritating. Grabbing one of the powder-blue work shirts I pulled it on… blushing with a gasp as the fabric rubbed against my chest, trying to ignore it, glad for once that I usually was given the shirts after they ran out of mediums. As I turned to leave I stopped, looking down at my paws. There was no way I’d be able to wear my sandals now, I’d never be able to keep them on. Not without some complex series of string or something. And I couldn’t go out barefoot! Or barepaw or whatever. Hell I never did! And people would probably see something strange about me walking everywhere barefoot anyway… I glanced at my boots. I usually wore them when I wasn’t wearing sandals, and it WAS starting to get cool, so maybe if I could cram my paw into it somehow I could-

I froze and stared. I had been trying to put my paw into my boot even as I was muttering to myself and as soon as it touched the bottom of the boot it disappeared, leaving my paw standing where my boot had been! In disbelief I reached down to try and see if it was still there, only for it to suddenly reappear as I tried to regrab where it was. Then it disappeared when I let go. Reappear. Disappear. This made absolutely no sense! I couldn’t even wear shoes now? Or… was it going to… wherever it needed to for others to see it the way they saw me? It didn’t matter. Even with it on it wasn’t on. I still couldn’t go around barefoot, not even like this. And if anything I put on disappeared…

I looked at my dresser. “Maybe not everything…” I opened it up and took out a pair of socks. Trying to take the Mysterious Invisible Boot off, I carefully slipped on one of the socks, having a lot of trouble as I did due to the claws on my toes catching on the fabric. Growling I persisted, until finally I got it on to the end, the sock still there. I flexed my toes, only to feel one of the claws get caught in the fabric, and sighed, feeling my ears splay in disappointment. I may be able to use it for now but these socks would get filthy and if I stepped in anything… not to mention they’d be torn apart just from putting them on.

I sat down on the chair at my computer, hand on my face in frustration. I couldn’t live like this, there had to be SOMETHING I could do. I didn’t have time to go into it now though. I looked at my paws again. “It’ll have to do for today,” I muttered, before finishing the task and walking out.

As I started to leave I grabbed my hat and looked at it. With my ears on top of my head now I couldn’t really wear it well, but I had to. If I didn’t, anyone who knew me would know something was wrong, and I had to try to hide this. Trying to fold my ears against my head I put on the hat, groaning a bit. It was uncomfortable, and everything became a little muffled, but I’d have to deal. Ironic, really, the timing of what happened. My old hat, which I wore just a month ago before retiring it, had holes my ears could stick through easily. Shaking my head, I bid farewell to my parents and walked out of the house to tackle biking to work…

'''August 22nd, 2005'''

A week.

It had been almost a week since the change, and I was trying to deal as best I could. Biking was surprisingly easy and not that affected by my new legs, though I had to concentrate on my massive fluffy tail to keep it from touching the rear tire. Having tried showering now I realized just how long drying would actually take, something I didn’t expect, for both my fur and my now-much-longer hair. Twice already my parents had asked if I was alright in the bathroom. My hat I couldn’t do anything about. If I tried cutting holes in it everyone would know something was up, so I had to deal with everything being muffled whenever I left the house. My paws, meanwhile, I had come up with a temporary solution. I found some spare fabric at home and each day would wrap it around my feet, tying it off. After I got home I’d toss it in the garbage, and find some more fabric the next day. I’d probably have to buy some soon. Maybe if I-

My jaw dropped as my eyes scanned the boardwalk. There, coming up one of the ramps across from my booth, was what looked like a rabbit. But one like me! Anthropomorphic, I believe was the term. He looked around, white fur almost blindingly reflecting the light, before he saw me. His eyes looked at mine for a moment before he started walking over. Shaking my head and trying to turn back to my book I tried to at least look casual.

“Excuse me, miss?” came a voice, and my grip on the book tightened, claws pricking the cover. He saw me as a miss! He could be real! Unless he… I had to find out.

“Buy a pass,” I muttered up.

His hand paused just in my view. “Excuse me?”

“I said buy a pass,” I hissed. “Please… we won’t talk until you do.” There was a pause before I heard him walking away, glancing at me confusedly. He walked up to Allen in the booth, spoke to him briefly, and purchased one of the passes onto the beach. Money changed hands, and I saw Allen point him towards me, telling him I’d punch the pass. He came back over to me, holding the pass out. I exhaled a breath I didn’t realize I was holding. “Oh thank God…”

“What was that about?” he asked me as I took the pass with shaking hands.

“I… I had to be sure,” I said. “I didn’t know if I was hallucinating or not and you may have been a figment of my imagination. If Allen didn’t give you the pass I-“

“I understand,” the rabbit said as he took the pass back. “It’s weird, I know, but you’re not alone. I can explain everything, but not here. When do you get off?”

“My lunch break is at one,” I said. “Meet me here then, we’ll get lunch together. And thank you… I’ve been hoping for someone to show up here for a week. Ah… my name’s Lester, by the way. Lester Calvin.”

The rabbit looked confused for a moment, an ear twitching. “Lester?” then his eyes widened. “Ooooh, you’re one of THOSE! Double whammy, eesh. I’ll try to help how I can but… anyway my name’s Eli Planter. I’ll be back at one.” He took my hand and shook it, before turning and walking off on the boardwalk, possibly to look for others.

I sat back, relieved. Finally… I was starting to think I wouldn’t find anyone else, despite this being the place all the beach goers from New York City came to. But it paid off, finally. And soon I’d have my answers.

----

One o’clock couldn’t come soon enough, and I found myself checking my watch more and more as the hour came, tapping a toe impatiently as my relief showed up a few minutes late. Sighing, I turned and walked off, seeing Eli standing at one of the ramps. As I approached I got a better look at him. He was short, a little shorter than me, the tops of his long perky ears just barely passing my own ear tips. He seemed to be dressed fairly comfortably, but was barefoot. I winced slightly as I noticed that, but tried to pay it no mind. By now I had gotten used to the smell of people around me thanks to my stronger fox nose, but Eli was emitting a strange scent. I hadn’t smelled it much but it was there, just covering another scent that some part of my mind found… intriguing. “I only have about an hour,” I said as we started walking. “We can talk on the way to the Burger King down there.”

Eli nodded. “I’ll try to tell you as much as I can then, but not until we get a seat. We’re trying to keep the Change secret, and I can’t let anybody overhear.”

I reluctantly nodded a bit, then spoke up. “At least tell me this first then… is this permanent?”

Eli sighed, closing his eyes briefly. “As far as we know, yes. There’s a bit more to it but I’ll explain later.”

I stumbled slightly but kept walking, my mind trying to deal. Permanent… “It… it can’t be,” I muttered. “Maybe it only lasts a few months or a year or two and then-”

“I’ve been Changed since 1998,” he said, interrupting me. “And I’m hardly the oldest. I’ll explain more when we get inside.”

I opened my mouth to speak, then stopped. “Right, sorry…” I looked down at him. 1998… that was 7 years! I shook my head to clear it as we walked into the BK, myself ordering a burger and fries while he simply ordered a salad. I couldn’t help but wonder if being a rabbit he had adapted his eating habits… but then again, I’d been finding myself preferring meat more lately. Finally we sat down and, as he opened his salad package, he started explaining.

“Alright. Now the first thing you should know is that yes, this is real. You’re a fox and I’m a rabbit, and we’re not the only ones changing. There are thousands of us across the US, and I’ve heard of a few in Canada as well. Every August seventeenth the number of us doubles, as it has been since the first one changed way back in 1987.”

I gasped. “’87?! That was before I was born!” Eli hmphed. “Thanks for making me feel old… what are you, sixteen?”

“Seventeen, actually,” I muttered, taking a bite of my burger. “Last year of high school.”

“They’re showing up younger every year…” Eli muttered. Then he returned to his explanation. “Before you ask, no. We don’t know what’s causing it or why. We’ve heard everything from aliens to God’s punishment to some Random Omnipotent Being deciding to just mess around with us. Either way, it’s been happening, it’s been showing no sign of slowing, and if it continues at this rate then by 2020 the entire world is going to be covered in fuzz.”

I stared at him in amazement, then thought about it for a bit. “Well that makes sense in a way… by 2020 I mean. There’s a lot of people but exponential growth does add up fast.” Eli blinked at me. “You’re smart for your age, kid.” I chuckled. “Thanks. I’ve already got my eyes on college… anyway, why can’t anyone see us?”

He shrugged. “We don’t know much, except there’s some sort of field or veil covering us. Only we Changed can see other Changed. Everyone else just sees us as we used to be. Human. I’ve heard of one or two Unchanged able to see us as we are, but it’s extremely rare. We’re really thankful for the Veil, though. Without it we don’t know what would have happened. It even disguises clothing changes, so we can get away with tail holes without anyone asking questions.”

I shook my head. “Not for me. My parents do my laundry and if they noticed the holes they’d just make me get new pants. They already get on me about socks or holes in the knees from time to time.” I glanced down. “What about my shoes?”

“Well you just put your shoes on like normally and they just disappear, appearing on your… your ghost or whatever you want to call it.” He glanced down at my paws and blinked. “And WHAT are you wearing?”

I flexed my toes in the fabric I had wrapped my paws up in. “Some spare fabric I found. I can’t walk around barefoot, I mean… gum, dirt, crap… I’m not walking in that all the time. Aren’t there any shoes or anything that we… Changed can wear?”

Eli looked over his own paws (Much bigger than my own and looking more like feet) then back at me. “Ah… not that I know of. You can check the network to see if anyone knows anything, but I’ve never heard anything about Changed footwear.”

I nodded a bit. “When I asked if it was permanent, you said there was a bit more to it…”

Eli nodded as he took another bite of salad. “There’s been reports of some people who changed several years in a row. One year they’re a dog, the next a bear, then a rat. They’re rare, though. Almost as rare as those in… your situation, and never back to human.”

I tilted my head slightly, feeling one of my ears pushing against my hat. “My situation?”

“Gender changing, in addition to the species change,” he replied. “Double whammy. I should mention, we generally refer to other transgendered by their initials so-”

“So I’d be LC,” I said. Eli nodded. “Exactly.” He glanced at my watch. “Look, I’m sorry I couldn’t give you more help, but I gave you all the important information I could. I’m no greeter, but here…” he handed me a card with a pair of websites on it, along with passwords. “Those two sites should help you. One is the main Network forum boards, the other is a new one that’s being formed for NYC Changed. If you’re lucky you’ll be able to get in. The sites are always bogged down and crashing around Change Day.”

I read over the card and nodded. “Alright. Thanks Eli. And thanks for showing me I’m not actually insane.” He shook my hand. “You’re welcome LC. We’re all in this together.” He smiled, and with little else to say, we parted and I headed back to work.

All things considered, I was happy. Sure there was still no solution for my shoe problem, but at least I would be able to get help on all sorts of things I didn’t even think about or come across yet, like… like how to deal with the shower! I hated having to wait forever to dry. Or how to deal with the mo- oh dear. Why did I never think of that? I sighed and shook my head. It was going to be a rough future, but somehow, I’d find ways to deal with it.
[[Category:Story]][[Category:Paradise]][[Category:Chessrook44]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Unforseen Changes}}

User:Chessrook44/Unforseen Gifts

2011-09-11T00:09:37Z

Chessrook44:

== Lister's Tales 3: Unforseen Gifts ==

'''November 30th, 2005'''

Snow. Frozen crystals of ice fallen from the sky during winter. Covering the land with a blanket of white and granting people the ability to throw snowballs, make snow angels, and in extreme cases, give lucky students a day off from school. But not today.

Today the snow provided challenges and frustrations of its own to me. Being one of the Changed, the shoes I put on were never actually worn, meaning the rags I had wrapped around my paws to keep out the dirt were getting soaked. Not only that, but I left pawprints in the snow instead of footprints, meaning I had to drag my feet through the snow or I would raise too many questions, which made my paws even wetter. And finally, I was bundled up in a heavy jacket and pants and overheating a bit due to my fur. Sure, I could probably go outside with just a shirt and no jacket, but I still had to hide THAT oddity, especially since I already had a reputation for a low cold tolerance. The end result left me a very moody vixen as I walked back to school from lunch.

The past few months had proceeded relatively boringly, and nothing special seemed to happen, either in the Changed community or in my life here at home. I had hoped to find an alumni of the school who had Changed at the annual Thanksgiving party, but no such luck, nothing but humans. Home, meanwhile, went as usual. I went to school, came home, closed myself in my room, and didn’t come out much. OK so I’m a bit of a loner in person, but I was spending all my time online and it made hiding the Change a bit easier.

I tried to knock some of the snow off my paws as I walked into the school building, but succeeded only in stubbing my toe, the snow sticking firmly to the rags and making them wetter as they melted. I sighed and walked further in, sitting on a chair and opening my jacket to cool off, taking out my laptop to check on the Changed forums.

The NYChanged forum had gained in members in the past few months, reaching around 40 posters with more known to have been found, but it still seemed small for the city and the forum was relatively quiet, aside from a brief scare when a hacker somehow managed to get past the captcha and proceeded to troll us for a couple days. Fortunately, a simple switch of the identification picture and a ban put a stop to that, and we hadn’t seen him since.

Moving to the Changed Network, I leaned forward as I found a private message sent to me. Confused, as I hadn’t posted too much in the forums, I clicked it and opened it up.

----

To: RiskySoldier88

From: NPKitty

Subj: Furgonomics

Greetings. I am Nicole Palova, CEO and head of the newly-formed Future Ergonomics Corporation, or Furgonomics as we shall be known in the Changed community. We at Furgonomics have listened to comments about the difficulties of living in a world not built for tails, fur, claws, and hooves, and have taken it upon ourselves to become the first corporation made solely to solve the difficulties caused by the Change, and to provide for the needs of the Changed. We have already begun production of objects such as tail-friendly chairs and clothes, however our next project will require help from members of the Changed community itself for long-term field testing and because of your interest in the product we would like your assistance in this matter.

Our current project is to create shoes for the Changed, a difficult project for such a large variety of paws and hooves, but one we believe will have import in the future. If you wish to participate in our study, please reply to this message with your name, species, and e-mail included, and we will send you a form providing information we need you to fill out for a proper fit. All paw/hoofshoes will be provided to you free of charge, pending proper feedback.

Thank you for your assistance.

----

I read through the message again, smiling. A company for Changed needs! And they were making shoes, in addition to other things. I hadn’t had a problem with chairs, since many school chairs had holes in the back anyway, but I had heard complaints from others, and providing clothes is something that would save time for many Changed that couldn’t sew. I tried to think of what made them decide to pick me for this project, when I decided it was probably the topic I had posted regarding the Shoe Field. One or two people had replied that I seemed a bit obsessed with shoes, but in actuality, I just didn’t want to get my feet dirty. And they were already cold and wet from the melted snow. Somehow I doubted that was too healthy.

Though I couldn’t help but groan at the name (Furgonomics? Was everything in the future going to become a bad pun?) I sent a message back with my information. I then read over the forums further, eventually finding a post about Furgonomics that explained more or less what was said in the message, and providing a bit more information on the company. Nicole Palova was a snow leopardess in charge of the company, which was based in Chicago. Fittingly, since that was where the first Changed showed up. While its purpose for the Changed was obvious, to the public eye its purpose was to find cheaper, more ergonomically sound objects. After making a few posts of my own, I closed down my laptop and headed off to my next class, resolving to check my mail as soon as I got home.

----

The next couple hours passed in something of a blur as I tried not to think too much of Furgonomics and focus on my classes, but it wasn’t always easy with my eagerness dancing about in the back of my head. Finally I managed to get home and, after eating dinner with the family, I went onto my computer and found the form sitting in my e-mail. Apparently it had to be printed out and sent or faxed in, so I quickly did so and went back into my room to look it over.

The first half of the form made sense in what needed to be filled in. Name, current gender (with a checkbox if TG’d), species, age, and so forth. Then there was a diagram of a footpaw, with lines showing all the areas to be measured, including width, length, claw size, height, distance from bottom of paw to heel, from top of paw to heel, and several other measurements I didn’t realize I’d need until now. There was also a note to provide photos as well if possible, as such might help with shaping the shoes, but that was something I probably wouldn’t be able to provide.

The measuring would be easy, but getting the measuring tape without questions being asked wouldn’t be… and in fact wasn’t. My mother caught me trying to take the measuring tape out of her sewing kit, but by being vague about what I was using it for (measuring) I managed to get away without too many questions. The next half hour was spent with me measuring and re-measuring my paws as precisely as I could get over the fur, until finally I got all the data plugged in and the forms filled out. Come Saturday, I’d take a walk out to the post office and send the letter out to Furgonomics. Already I couldn’t wait.

'''December 3rd, 2005'''

Bloody weather. Why did it have to snow again?

Another two inches had come down last night, leaving a fresh untouched blanket over the city. Fun for many kids, but once again frustrating for me as I would leave fresh pawprints, not to mention the soaking… pah, it wouldn’t matter in a couple weeks. I was walking down to the post office now to send the forms I had received to Furgonomics.

Hopping up the stairs, I walked inside, only a few other people out today, and took care of it, sticking a stamp on the envelope and slipping the letter into the out of town slot. Smiling after accomplishing my job, I walked back outside and headed back down the stairs, deciding to get some lunch at Burger King while I was out.

As I pressed the button for the crosswalk, however, I heard a voice coming up to me. “Hey, hey you!” I turned to find a woman walking up to me. “Can I talk with you for a minute?” She had an intrigued look on her face, and I started hearing alarms going off in my head.

“Possibly, I’ll start counting down the seconds,” I said with a slight smirk, trying to put some humor into the comment.

The woman moved up to me. “Sorry I just wanted to ask. Are you one of those…” she glanced around, then leaned in and whispered, “…animal people?”

My eyes widened, but I managed to catch myself before my jaw dropped. “Er, animal people?” I asked, acting confused. “What are you talking about? Don’t I look human to you?”

“Well yes you do,” the woman replied, “but you left pawprints on the stairs over there instead of footprints.” She held up a hand. “Don’t worry if you are, your secret is safe. My husband became a deer two years ago, managed to prove it by stepping in some mud. We haven’t seen any others except on television since.”

It took me a few moments to process that. “I… yes, yeah I am. Um, I’d rather you not spread that around so…”

The woman looked relieved. “Oh don’t worry about that. I’m just glad I managed to find one of you. We’ve had no idea what was going on since it happened.”

I turned as the crossing light changed. “Well come with me to the Burger King and I’ll try and give you a briefing. You can call me LC. What’s your name?” I held out a hand for her, and she shook it. “Bethany. My husband is Martin. Thank you so much for talking with me.” Her hand held mine a bit longer than needed, the thumb moving over its back. “What er… just what are you anyway?”

“A vi- er, a fox. I’m a fox. I take it you don’t know of the network or anything?” She shook her head. I figured I probably shouldn’t get into the TG changed, they’d find out about it on their own and it would make the conversation much easier. Taking my hand back, the two of us walked into the Burger King and I got my food (she had already eaten), the two of us then moving to sit down in a booth. “Alright,” I said, taking a bite of my burger. “What did you want to know?”

“Well what’s going on?” Bethany asked. “Why is Martin a deer, why are you a fox, and how come nobody can see it?”

I let out a sigh. “Good question. Quite frankly, none of us know why or how it’s happening. We don’t know who it’ll happen to, or what’s causing it. All we know is that it happens every August 17th, and twice as many change every year. No reason, no cause, no explanation, no nothing. We’re just trying to cope as well as we can. And before you ask, yes, it IS permanent.”

“How many of you are there? I can’t see you, but Martin says he’s seen you on television now and then. There can’t be that many of you.”

“Right now there’s about a quarter of a million of us worldwide, though most of us are in North America. At least as far as I can tell, I personally haven’t spoken with anyone who’s not American or Canadian.” Chewing over another bite of burger, I looked back at her. “I can give you a couple links to the forums we use to communicate. Do you have a pen or paper?” She nodded and handed me a pen and a blank envelope from her purse. I wrote the address for the NYChanged and main Network forums. “You probably wouldn’t be able to get in, there’s a captcha image that you wouldn’t be able to see properly until you Change, but your husband should be able to get past it.”

Bethany nodded as she took the papers back. “Well, thank you for the info. I’m sure he’ll be glad to find all this out.” I smiled. “You’re welcome. Take care, and send him my regards. We’re all in this together.” She shook my hand again and headed out while I finished up my meal.

That evening when I went on the NYChanged forums I found that Martin had indeed joined up. He was glad to have finally gotten in contact with us, and thanked me for helping him and his wife. I sent a reply to him, and soon after closed down the forums to go to sleep, thoughts of various things running through my head.

'''December 27th, 2005'''

Christmas came and went, and like any year I got some nice things and some that were needed but not desired. Clothes, that is. But it was two days later that I got the present I had been waiting for.

I was sitting in my room playing one of my new games when my mom called me. “Les! You have a package!” Pausing the game I went into the living room, grinning as I realized what it probably was. As I took the box, my mom gave me an odd look. “What’s Future Ergonomics?”

I looked up at her, hesitating a bit as my mind tried to think of something to say. “Oh! It’s um… it’s a new company. They were looking for people to test some of their things and I volunteered. I… figured why not?” Mentally I hit myself for not having a better excuse, and my Mom looked at me.

“You’re seventeen. Why would they let you test it?” She said, looking over me. “Oh well, they… need people from all age groups! Yeah so, I figured I could. Hope that’s alright.” I tried to give a grin.

“And what did they send you?” she asked again, looking down at the box. “Oh, er, shoes.” I said. “More… ergonomical shoes.” She eyed me for a bit longer before nodding with an “alright” and I dashed into my room before she could ask any more questions.

I closed the door and set to opening the box, taking the shoes out of the packing material. To me it almost looked like a high-top boot with the foot part being grossly undersized… if it had been made for a human foot, that is. The part the foot went in was small, but looked about the right size for my foot, thankfully. The rest of it stretched upwards, laces going all along it to the top, complete with tongue underneath. Deciding to test it out, I slipped my foot inside, and felt some of the soft padding within. The laces went up to just under my raised heel, and I tied it up snugly and stood to see how it felt.

For a first try at a boot for Changed, they didn’t do that bad a job. Some parts were rubbing against my fur a little oddly, and the end seemed to be pressing against my claws (although it had been a while since I last clipped them) but otherwise it seemed to be doing its job properly. I slipped on the other boot and walked into the living room, standing before my mom. “So? How do they look?”

She looked down at the boots as I turned around. “Those are… odd looking boots. How do they feel?” I smiled. “A little odd, but I think I’ll get used to it. Most shoes do feel a little odd at first after all.”

She nodded, and I walked back into my room, removing the boots and looking over them. Glad to finally have something on my feet that wasn’t rags, I put them away and returned to my game, looking forward to when I would actually be wearing them when I went back to school.
[[Category:Story]][[Category:Paradise]][[Category:Chessrook44]]{{DEFAULTSORT:Unforseen Gifts}}

Paradise (Setting)

2011-09-07T00:27:58Z

Chessrook44:

{{Universe|Paradise}}

{{byline|author=Jon Buck
|user=JonBuck}}

A direct link '''[[User:JonBuck/A Kind of Paradise|To the original story.]]'''

=={{separator|f|Stories in Chronological Order}}==

Authors may add links to their stories as they happen in chronological order in story time. For a complete listing of all Paradise stories, since this list may be updated sporadically, see [[:Category:Paradise|the Paradise Category]].

'''2000'''
*[[User:Erastus/On the Outside Looking|On the Outside, Looking...]] ''(Through 2010) ([[User:Erastus|Erastus]])''

'''2001'''
*[[Ranty Raccoon]] ''(Digitalpotato)''

'''2002'''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Made Alone|Made Alone]] ''([[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]])''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Bathing Alone|Bathing Alone]] ''([[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]])''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Not Quite Alone|Not Quite Alone]] ''([[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]])''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Suspected Alone|Suspected Alone]] ''([[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]])''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Revealing Alone|Revealing Alone]] ''([[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]])''

'''2003'''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Convention Building|Convention Building]] ''([[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]])''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Model Building | Model Building]] ''([[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]])''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Change Building | Change Building]] ''([[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]])''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Confession Building | Confession Building]] ''([[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]])''

'''2004'''
*[[User_talk:Enphilistor| Victory Starts Here]] [recovered from google cache] ''(Enphilistor)''

'''2005'''
*[[User:Jetfire/Holes in the Veil| Holes in the Veil]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Robotech_Master/Capsule_Review:_Changed:_The_Unveiling|RPG.net Capsule Review: Changed: The Unveiling]] ''([[User:Robotech_Master|Robotech_Master]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Lifting The Veil| Lifting The Veil]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Poking the Veil| Poking the Veil]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Chessrook44/Unforseen Changes| Unforseen Changes]] ''([[User:Chessrook44|Chessrook44]])''
*[[User:Chessrook44/Unforseen Reactions| Unforseen Reactions]] ''([[User:Chessrook44|Chessrook44]])''
*[[User:Chessrook44/Unforseen Gifts| Unforseen Gifts]] ''([[User:Chessrook44|Chessrook44]])''
*[[User:Eirik/Stages|Stages]] (Through October 2006) ''([[User:Eirik|Eirik]])''

'''2006'''
*[[User:Hawl/The Sexiest Of All Tiger Girls| The Sexiest of All Tiger Girls]] ''([[User:Hawl|Hawl]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Film at 2011| Film at 2011]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/GM'O'Fur| GM'O'Fur]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Twisting the Veil| Twisting the Veil]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Silver Fox Tracks|Silver Fox Tracks]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Generations| Generations]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/A Rolling Stone Gathers No Veil|A Rolling Stone Gathers No Veil]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Auld Lang Syne|Auld Lang Syne]] (Extends into 2007) ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Eirik/Reverberations|Reverberations]] ''([[User:Eirik|Eirik]])''
*[[User:Eirik/Bare Hands|Bare Hands]] ''([[User:Eirik|Eirik]])''

'''2007'''
*[[User:Eirik/Treatment|Treatment]] ''([[User:Eirik|Eirik]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/It Bears Investigation|It Bears Investigation]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Gaming Furs|Gaming Furs]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:JonBuck/A Kind of Paradise|A Kind of Paradise]] ''([[User:JonBuck|JonBuck]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Radio No Veil|Radio No Veil]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Six Furries and a Wedding|Six Furries and a Wedding]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:JonBuck/Tall Tales|Tall Tales]] ''([[User:JonBuck|JonBuck]])''
*[[User:Nikon/Changing Perspectives|Changing Perspectives]] ''([[User:Nikon|Nikon]])''
*[[User:Nikon/Back to Reality|Back to Reality]] ''([[User:Nikon|Nikon]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Clearing the Air|Clearing the Air]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Eirik/Waters_So_Cold_and_Deep|Waters So Cold and Deep]] ''([[User:Eirik|Eirik]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Doing Hard Time|Doing Hard Time]] (Extends into 2008) ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[Monkey Business]] ''([[User:Boss Hoss|Boss Hoss]])''
*[[User:Nikon/Coming Home|Coming Home]] (guess based on posting date) ''([[User:Nikon|Nikon]])''

'''2008'''
*[[User:Jetfire/Live_At_Five|Live At Five]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Rising Waters|Rising Waters]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Gulf_Ice|Gulf Ice]] (Prelude in 2001) ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/The_Bear_Facts|The Bear Facts]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Election Fever|Election Fever]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Eirik/Centers of Power|Centers of Power]] ''([[User:Eirik|Eirik]])''
*[[User:JonBuck/Open Secrets|Open Secrets]] ''([[User:JonBuck|JonBuck]])''
*[[User:WolfyDrake95/New_World|New World]] ''([[User:WolfyDrake95|WolfyDrake95]])''
*[[User:WolfyDrake95/To_a_Friend|To a Friend]] ''([[User:WolfyDrake95|WolfyDrake95]])''
*[[User:Chessrook44/Incarceration|Incarceration]] ''([[User:Chessrook44|Chessrook44]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Special Care|Special Care]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/NorBAC|NorBAC]] (begins in June; jumps to September) ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Judge_Judy:_Deagle_vs_Anderson|Judge Judy: Deagle vs Anderson]] (2008 or 2009) ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''

'''2009'''
*[[User:JonBuck/After Hours|After Hours]] ''([[User:JonBuck|JonBuck]])''

'''2010'''
*[[User:JonBuck/Changing America|Changing America]] (work in progress) ''([[User:JonBuck|JonBuck]])''
*[[User:Robotech_Master/See Change: March 20, 2010|See Change: March 20, 2010]] ''([[User:Robotech_Master|Robotech_Master]])''
*[[User:Robotech_Master/Tiffnapped|Tiffnapped]] ''([[User:Robotech_Master|Robotech_Master]])''
*[[User:Robotech_Master/Holding Helena|Holding Helena]] ''([[User:Robotech_Master|Robotech_Master]])''

'''Alternate Future'''
*[[Cascade Failure]]

=={{separator|f|Basics}}==
*The setting is basically indistinguishable from the Real World up until 1987, the year when people first begin to spontaneously transform into furries.
*Exactly one person transformed in Year One ''(i.e.,'' 1987), and the number of furries doubles in late August each year. The initial story in this setting, [[User:JonBuck/A Kind of Paradise|A Kind of Paradise]], is set in Year 21 ''(i.e.,'' 2007), when there are just over one million furries. The next year (2008) will add a million, for a total of two megafurries, and so forth.
*The first furry in 1987 was a vixen, with a tod the next year. Some stereotypes do have a basis in "reality". :)
**The entire world will be furry in 2020.
*Every year it's possible that an already-changed person could change ''again''. With increasing rarity, all less than one percent:
**A species change. ("What the..? I'm a ''wolf'' now? What am I supposed to do with all these hoof picks?")
**A gender change. ("Where do men put this ''thing'' between our legs when we sit down?")
**A combination of both. ("Don't ''even'' call me a bitch! Just show me how to put on this stupid bra!")
**The next year there is about a 25% chance that the person will revert to their original gender/first species. If that doesn't happen, it's fixed. If they change back... there's another 25% chance that you'll bounce back ''again'' the next year. So there's some potential for characters who spend years alternating between species/gender.
*Also distinctive from Winds of Change: ''No superpowers''. Just whatever natural abilities (things like augmented senses, physical strength, ''etc)'' come from being half animal.
*'''The Role Reversal Paradox.'''
**''IF'' the couple has children, pre- or post-Change, no matter what age...
**''IF'' one of the couple has been transgendered...
**''THEN'' it is essentially a sure thing that the partner will TG as well.
**The reason for this is simple. ROB hates paradoxes. If they have children, there ''must'' be a father and a mother. And it ''must'' be the same two people. It doesn't matter if that person divorced and remarried someone else. Or if they're unmarried. One father, one mother. Otherwise, the kids will logically not have come into existence.
**Conversely, if they are married/going out/living together/etc., the same TG 1% dice roll applies to them as everyone else.

'''Important.''' Please ''do not'' write stories that are father ahead in the timeline than those I have written.''

'''Note on Politics'''. As a request, I ask authors not to use major political figures from Real Life. I don't want any political bashing going on here. Characters like Congressman Sandrick are perfectly fine, so feel free to create fictional members of Congress or Members of Parliament. Remember this world is different from ours from 1987 onwards. There are still details I haven't filled in between then and now, and the Butterfly Effect means that there will be some small, some major differences.

{{add|'''Winners of the 2008 Election'''}}
*President: Karen Hutchinson. (Reverse Pres. Obama and his wife, basically)
*VP: Steven Angstrom

===The Transgendered===
Just a few details.
#This is an earlier, generally harmless virus that got into the simulation. ROB dealt with it by the "history editing" as described in the stories.
#It's been around a LOT longer than the Furry Virus.
#Even though it's probably been around for thousands of years, there are far fewer victims than the Furry Virus as of 2009. I imagine the furry virus co-opted this one for the TGed furs.
#As in real life, there are many more male to female victims than the other way around.
#Transgendered victims have little or no support system like furries do. They're generally isolated. And before 2009 couldn't see through the RDF.

===Physiology===

*Furries can still interbreed with one another as if they were all still human. Children most often follow their parents' species, however, they can also follow their grandparents species, or something out of left field.
*Conversely, humans '''cannot''' interbreed with furries, probably due to the RDF.
*There are some physical variations, but not the wide "Degrees" that Winds of Change has. The most obvious differences are hair, feet, and hands. Otherwise, most everyone is about as morphic as seen in common furry art.
**Females most often have hair the same color and similar texture as their fur. Though you do still get the occasional blond.
**Males retain their hair less frequently.
*'''Size Limitations.''' On the suggestion from the Talk page. I'm not going to limit species. However, I will have a minimum/maximum size range:
**7 feet (or 2.1m), max. About 600 lb (272 kg), max.
**4 feet (1.2m). I'll leave the small side open.
*Species are native to a particular continent. So most people in North America will end up whitetail deer, elk, bears, foxes, wolves, etc. Recent immigrants will more likely end up native species to wherever they came from.
**However, this means that someone from Seattle could ''still'' end up a leopard, or a llama, or what-have-you from other continents. I just want to make that clear.
**No mythicals like dragons, griffins, satyrs, vampires, mages, what-have-you. Just furries.
**No birds, reptiles, or other non-mammals.
*'''No Extinct Species.''' No dinosaurs. Sadly, I can't include them. There are so many species that are just too big.
*'''Note on Transsexuals'''. This setting is intended as a mix of wish fulfillment and darker, more realistic consequences. That said, all TS folks get their bodies "corrected". Keep in mind that this won't necessarily make life easier for said character. Conflict generates Plot. And since most of the folks who get their gender switched ''won't'' be TS, there's still plenty of that around.
*Results of major surgeries are translated. Artificial hips, knees and pacemakers still work as needed. Transplant patients will not reject their organs. However, lost limbs will not regenerate and major chronic diseases will not be cured, but may go into a lengthy remission.
*One of the major benefits is a major improvement in health and fitness. ROB can't stop the change, but at least he can give the victims a sort of consolation prize. You may not end up in perfect shape, but it'll be close. A flood of positive endorphins to make the victim feel good about their new bodies doesn't hurt, either (optional). Now, what happens to that state of fitness ''after'' is entirely up to your characters.

===Psychology===
*At this point I'm inclined to have some mitigating effects on the "victims". It's still going to be very, very hard to deal with. This is a major life disruption. And there are no doubt a lot of secluded furs. But suicides aren't as common as you'd think.
*The transgendered furs do have an even rougher time. The double-whammy of species and gender would likely make serious post-change Issues a reality.
**Transgendered furs typically refer to themselves by their initials: BD, DL, etc..
**Some might end up going a little crazy and think they had ''always been'' their new gender, especially after the effects of Tall Tales Con.
*The more adjusted furs have figured out how to find these troubled souls and bring them back into the real world.

=={{separator|f|The Reality Distortion Field (Veil)}}==
*Humans can't see furries for what they are. They still see whatever the person looked like before, even if that person was the opposite gender.
*Some things aren't filtered correctly. Consequently...
**If a TGed man gets pregnant, the filter will change that person's ghost image to female. But she will still appear human to other humans.
**Things like hoof/paw prints, shed fur, shed antlers, clawmarks, animal odors, etc., are not filtered. So if a cougar morph gets in a fight with a normal human and lashes out with his claws, he could cause a hell of a lot of damage.
**Some humans think that there is something up (referred to as "Known" or "Friends"). And some have figured out that the friends who claim to be furry actually ''are'' what they claim to be.
*The RDF sometimes breaks down a little during large gatherings of furries (like at conventions). "Hey, that's the best costume I've ever seen! Is that a prosthetic muzzle?" Memories afterwards will probably remember some really good costumes, and photos will be perceived as such.
**In more extreme cases it will break down entirely. But it would take repeated exposures, or perhaps having a number of furry friends while remaining humans oneself. Like in [[User:Nikon/Changing_Perspectives|Changing Perspectives]].
**Transgendered furs may be perceived by humans as their new gender out of the corner of their eye. And there are likely other circumstances where the human RDF image will realign also. Specific circumstances (such as pregnancy) will be the decisive factor.
**As of 2007, TGed TallTales Con attendees have had a major RDF alteration. Everyone except family, friends, or people who have seen them often enough to really know, will perceive them as their new physical sex. Which is essentially the vast majority of people. This effect will spread to all the other TGed until 2008, when it becomes the norm.
**'''As of 2009''', all human ghosts now reflect their real gender, no matter who is looking.
*Do animals perceive the RDF? Probably not. But the odor of a fur is neither quite human or animal. There are still some common human pheromones, for example. Which is what makes romance between wolf and deer possible. This is a ''good'' thing, since it means that a doe-woman in heat won't be chased down by a normal buck.
*It may start to break down as there grow to be millions of furries in the world (see below).
*Another storytelling idea: The RDF is an ''antiviral measure'' (see The Cause below). When the RDF breaks down, people ''may'' change out-of-phase, since they no longer have that protection. This will make it harder to track down people who change and get them the help they need. This is ''not'' a hard-and-fast rule, but the storytelling device is available. But I '''don't''' want it to become commonplace.

==={{separator|f|Holes in the Veil}}===

As seen in [[User:JonBuck/After Hours|After Hours]], on August 29, 2009 the Veil started coming down.

*First one appeared in Hyannis, MA on August 29. It quickly expanded to (size to be determined) and outed every furry in town. Other holes appeared in and around Chicago. Without exception they appear first where there's been a recent or frequent concentration of furs.
*Holes start small, but will grow depending on how weak the RDF is in the area.
*As the RDF decays, furs will feel like they're wrapped in loose plastic. And there's something of a light show. The air shimmers. The air feels cleaner, fresher.
**The RDF is an extra "rendering layer" of sorts. Since until now all furs had lived with it, they only really notice it was there now that it's been taken away. Leaving a Hole a fur will feel like he or she is wearing clothing a size too small or too large, depending on how much they deviate from the human norm. A really sensitive fur might feel suffocated, as if they were wrapped in plastics. They'll feel irritable and given the right situation, may tear ''new'' Holes (which could make good story fodder).
*They're like soap bubbles in that if they encounter other holes, they'll grow even larger. All of them are still slowly expanding, and may jump to larger sizes at unpredictable intervals.
*ROB will start a controlled shutdown of the RDF over the course of the year. Its replacement will be a Weirdness Censor.
**The world is going furry crazy. But not ''crazy crazy''. Using a cooking analogy, it's like a foamed egg whites getting folded into a souffle or other dish that needs careful mixing, or the recipe falls apart.

*Furs feel much more comfortable with themselves inside the holes. To furs, the RDF feels like restrictive clothing. Doubly so for the TGed furs. Even normal humans feel better. Caveats:
**Normal humans who spend more and more time inside one of these holes run increasing risk of becoming furry at any time of the year ahead.
**Once the RDF is down completely in late 2010, the above may apply to everyone. The numbers are still doubling as below, but the August 17 restriction no longer applies. And as above, a TG can happen before a TF.
**Furries cease being humans in funny costumes. Their animal natures will more easily bob to the surface. This is partly for psychological reasons (don't have to hide any more). Partly due to the pressure from the RDF being gone.

=={{separator|f|The Numbers}}==

Total sequence as follows (all figures approximate):
Year AD Total Furries Total Populace Furries, as %age of total populace
1 1987 1 5,184,212,887 0.000 000 02%
2 1988 2 5,247,179,035 0.000 000 04%
3 1989 4 5,310,909,955 0.000 000 05%
4 1990 8 5,375,414,934 0.000 000 15%
5 1991 16 5,440,703,374 0.000 000 3%
6 1992 32 5,506,784,792 0.000 000 6%
7 1993 64 5,573,668,818 0.000 001 1%
8 1994 128 5,641,365,200 0.000 002%
9 1995 256 5,709,883,806 0.000 004%
10 1996 512 5,779,234,621 0.000 009%
11 1997 1,024 5,849,427,754 0.000 018%
12 1998 2,048 5,920,473,436 0.000 035%
13 1999 4,096 5,992,382,020 0.000 07%
14 2000 8,192 6,065,163,988 0.000 14%
15 2001 16,384 6,138,829,947 0.000 3%
16 2002 32,768 6,213,390,635 0.000 5%
17 2003 65,536 6,288,856,918 0.001%
18 2004 131,072 6,365,239,795 0.002%
19 2005 262,144 6,442,550,400 0.004%
20 2006 524,288 6,520,800,000 0.008%
21 2007 1,048,576 6,600,000,000 0.016%
22 2008 2,097,152 6,680,161,943 0.031%
23 2009 4,194,304 6,761,297,514 0.062%
24 2010 8,388,608 6,843,418,536 0.123%
25 2011 16,777,216 6,926,536,980 0.24%
26 2012 33,554,432 7,010,664,959 0.48%
27 2013 67,108,864 7,095,814,736 0.95%
28 2014 134,217,728 7,181,998,721 1.87%
29 2015 268,435,456 7,269,229,474 3.69%
30 2016 536,870,912 7,357,519,711 7.30%
31 2017 1,073,741,824 7,446,882,298 14.42%
32 2018 2,147,483,648 7,537,330,262 28.49%
33 2019 4,294,967,296 7,628,876,783 56.30%
34 2020 8,589,934,592 7,721,535,206 >100%

At this point stories should take place in '''2001 at the earliest''', up to the current story-time year. The community gets really, really small before then. If you have a story that takes place in this era, submit it to me first. Thank you.

Things should start to get really interesting around 2010. There's enough furs in the world then that niche markets would start to open up. More clothing and products specifically designed for furries start popping up. Also, it will become harder and harder to induct new furs into the group in a healthy manner. Society may start to break down in places.

It will take a concerted effort by those previously changed to keep everything under control...

'''Distribution.''' It's not random, or even. It's an expanding fractal centered on the Chicago area. As far as visualization, I'll leave that vague. But the majority of the first furs were in North America.

From the way these stories are playing out, I'd say that events are unfolding like this:

*'''1987-2002''': "Alone" period. Isolation between furries, with only a few very small groups, most of them thinking they're all alone. Best exemplified by [[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat's]] stories. Nobody knows what's going on.
*'''2002-2008''': Forming Communities. There's now enough furs to start encountering each other regularly. Conventions start up. Anthro imagery (in movies, TV shows, and other media) start to show up more frequently. Information getting put together indicates an ominous trend. The whole world will eventually go furry.
*'''2008-?''': Events unfolding in [[User:JonBuck/Open Secrets|Open Secrets]] will nail down this theme. {{add|From here for the next few years, a third to nearly a half of the new Changed will be Known/Friends or family members. People who can see through the Veil easily.}}

===Important Events===
This section will be for events of note that will be important to the overall storytelling. Authors feel free to note important events in your works that could impact the setting as a whole here.

'''2007'''
*First instances of total, permanent [[User:Nikon/Changing Perspectives|RDF breakdown]]. Incidents isolated.
*First appearance of anthro dolphins. The RDF with these people is a very strained affair. The longer they stay around humans, the more likely it'll fail. Perhaps it realigns the image as a normal dolphin in the water, and a human on land.
*'''Added 2/24.''' Transgendered furs at [[User:JonBuck/Tall Tales|Tall Tales Con]] now appear as their new physical gender to anyone but close friends and family. The RDF is even actively changing identification. Active records like passports and driver's licenses, medical records are all altered to reflect this. Even a pre-Change photo ID will show the new human face, which will be a shock to the TGed fur. This effect is slowly spreading to other TGed furs, see [[User:Jetfire/Doing Hard Time|Doing Hard Time]].
*A number of pressing environmental problems relax slightly. While these solutions will solve some problems, they will cause others, especially in the short term.
**The recovery of the major world fisheries detected in the mid-90s continues apace.
**Major discoveries in energy include massive oilfields in various stable First World nations: US, Canada, UK, Norway, etc..
**Scientists observe CO2 levels stabilizing for currently unknown reasons.
**Third World experiences boosts in food production from improved farming practices and soil conditions.
**New renewable energy discoveries, new batteries, a bacterial process for making gasoline and diesel from municipal wastewater.
*With all these new furs, there are now enough singles to start pairing up. The lingering worries about fertility and children will be answered next year...

'''2008'''
*Fallout from Tall Tales Con continues. All newbie and furry gatherings the next year will be much, much smaller, informal.
*Although there were a few before this year, this is the first year a large number of furry babies will be born.
*A Changed rabbit appears as ''Playboy'''s September Playmate of the Month (though only other Changed/Changed-sensitive know it until later).

'''2009'''
*This Change Day will be different from the others. Instead of all happening in the same moment, the new furs will happen in fits and starts throughout the day. Some might change in the early morning, others late that night. The trend will continue over the next few years.
**Another wrinkle. If there's a TG, they don't have to happen at the same time. So some poor fellow who becomes a clouded leopard in the morning (or a woman) will get hit again sometime later.
* The shoe field died in 2008. Now the Veil no longer hides clothing modifications. For some furs this might be a Veil-breaker. We will see.
*Since [[User:JonBuck/Open Secrets|Open Secrets]], the secret is functionally out, though a sort of [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WeirdnessCensor Weirdness Censor] is in place, possibly due to widespread denial. Furry imagery started to dominate the media after the first of the year, especially on medical dramas and "what if" shows on National Geographic, Discovery Channel, even the Food Network. Mostly done with CGI, a few shows used furry actors and cameras able to see through the Veil. More to be revealed in [[User:JonBuck/After Hours|After Hours]].
* '''The Shutdown''', August 17-25. With a major Sleeping Sickness outbreak, much of the world economy shut down for a little over a week, with only essential services (energy, food transport, etc.) kept running. Similar to what Mexico did during the Swine Flu outbreak. Later they are accused of overreacting, as Sleeping Sickness seems to leave a minuscule number of deaths, and the victims healthier than before they contracted it.

'''2010'''
*Tiffany Tanner appears as the first Changed to play a Changed in a recurring role on daytime television. With the aid of a special lens, Tiffany's character "Felice Hunter" on ''One Life to Live'' dramatizes the plight of Changed forced to keep secrets from family and friends. Her stint on the show is briefly interrupted when she is kidnapped for several weeks, after which she again makes headlines as one of "Melton's Eleven," eleven furres who had been kidnapped for the private amusement of a twisted, reclusive millionaire (who vanished shortly before they escaped).

=={{separator|f|The Cause}}==

So, why is this happening? What's causing it? A nanotech virus? Microscopic magic pixies? The return of magic? The wrath of God? What?

The answer is contained in '''[[User:JonBuck/Tall Tales|Tall Tales]]'''.

However, the idea is this. Ever since I read [http://www.accelerando.org/ ''Accelerando''] By Charles Stross, I've been enamored with the idea of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity technological Singularity]. So I've been looking for a way to use it in my fiction at one point. This setting provides the answer to that desire. ''Accelerando'' is available for free on the web.

Our universe--or perhaps just our planet, I haven't decided yet--and all the people in it, are basically a simulation. This doesn't make the characters in these stories any less real than you our I. Mathematics forms the basis of the universe, after all. The people are as sentient as you or I. This makes the setting rather Matrix-like, without the human bodies being used as "batteries". We're all more like Agent Smith.

I refer to this as a "furry virus". It comes from outside the post-Singularity brain, and is slightly more advanced than "ours". What's happening is this bit of malicious code (sentient, no less, but on a level far beyond our ability to comprehend it) is messing up the simulated world we reside in. Why? I dunno. One of those inscrutable things. The RDF is an antiviral measure to contain the damage and allow the society within to adapt. This is also why so far, furry species are limited to mammals. As the numbers of furs increase, that ''will'' change. I have yet to decide just when.

Why not just scrap the whole thing and restore from backup? There are no backups because the simulated people are nevertheless living beings. And they can't just be wiped out.

I hope that explanation isn't too confusing. Please let me know on the '''[[Talk:Paradise (Setting)|Talk Page]]''' if you have questions.

=={{separator|f|Notes on Avatars}}==
So far, the convention for avatars in this setting is for writers to use the first initials of first and last names. However, I wanted to note that my intent here is to give the writer more freedom than to base these characters on yourself. I've changed a lot of details about Jerome, for instance. If you want to put your avatar--if you decide to use one--into this setting, go crazy. Give them a challenge (worse job, emotional trouble). Or make them better off and have the change cause a lot of trouble with work/family/whatever. What I'm trying to say here is, don't feel you have to be directly limited by your present or past self. ''Have fun.''

=={{separator|f|Important Cast}}==

'''[[Paradise Cast List]]'''

Since this is a wiki, that means everyone can edit it. Authors who want to put names and short bios of the characters in their stories, just in case someone else wants to use them for a cameo. With the characters, please list the stories that they appear in. Please put your cast members on the linked cast page. Thank you.

[[Category:Paradise]]

User:Chessrook44/Unforseen Gifts

2011-09-07T00:26:34Z

Chessrook44: Created page with '== Lister's Tales 3: Unforseen Gifts == '''November 30th, 2005''' Snow. Frozen crystals of ice fallen from the sky during winter. Covering the land with a blanket of white a…'

== Lister's Tales 3: Unforseen Gifts ==

'''November 30th, 2005'''

Snow. Frozen crystals of ice fallen from the sky during winter. Covering the land with a blanket of white and granting people the ability to throw snowballs, make snow angels, and in extreme cases, give lucky students a day off from school. But not today.

Today the snow provided challenges and frustrations of its own to me. Being one of the Changed, the shoes I put on were never actually worn, meaning the rags I had wrapped around my paws to keep out the dirt were getting soaked. Not only that, but I left pawprints in the snow instead of footprints, meaning I had to drag my feet through the snow or I would raise too many questions, which made my paws even wetter. And finally, I was bundled up in a heavy jacket and pants and overheating a bit due to my fur. Sure, I could probably go outside with just a shirt and no jacket, but I still had to hide THAT oddity, especially since I already had a reputation for a low cold tolerance. The end result left me a very moody vixen as I walked back to school from lunch.

The past few months had proceeded relatively boringly, and nothing special seemed to happen, either in the Changed community or in my life here at home. I had hoped to find an alumni of the school who had Changed at the annual Thanksgiving party, but no such luck, nothing but humans. Home, meanwhile, went as usual. I went to school, came home, closed myself in my room, and didn’t come out much. OK so I’m a bit of a loner in person, but I was spending all my time online and it made hiding the Change a bit easier.

I tried to knock some of the snow off my paws as I walked into the school building, but succeeded only in stubbing my toe, the snow sticking firmly to the rags and making them wetter as they melted. I sighed and walked further in, sitting on a chair and opening my jacket to cool off, taking out my laptop to check on the Changed forums.

The NYChanged forum had gained in members in the past few months, reaching around 40 posters with more known to have been found, but it still seemed small for the city and the forum was relatively quiet, aside from a brief scare when a hacker somehow managed to get past the captcha and proceeded to troll us for a couple days. Fortunately, a simple switch of the identification picture and a ban put a stop to that, and we hadn’t seen him since.

Moving to the Changed Network, I leaned forward as I found a private message sent to me. Confused, as I hadn’t posted too much in the forums, I clicked it and opened it up.

----

To: RiskySoldier88
From: NPKitty
Subj: Furgonomics

Greetings. I am Nicole Palova, CEO and head of the newly-formed Future Ergonomics Corporation, or Furgonomics as we shall be known in the Changed community. We at Furgonomics have listened to comments about the difficulties of living in a world not built for tails, fur, claws, and hooves, and have taken it upon ourselves to become the first corporation made solely to solve the difficulties caused by the Change, and to provide for the needs of the Changed. We have already begun production of objects such as tail-friendly chairs and clothes, however our next project will require help from members of the Changed community itself for long-term field testing and because of your interest in the product we would like your assistance in this matter.
Our current project is to create shoes for the Changed, a difficult project for such a large variety of paws and hooves, but one we believe will have import in the future. If you wish to participate in our study, please reply to this message with your name, species, and e-mail included, and we will send you a form providing information we need you to fill out for a proper fit. All paw/hoofshoes will be provided to you free of charge, pending proper feedback.
Thank you for your assistance.

----

I read through the message again, smiling. A company for Changed needs! And they were making shoes, in addition to other things. I hadn’t had a problem with chairs, since many school chairs had holes in the back anyway, but I had heard complaints from others, and providing clothes is something that would save time for many Changed that couldn’t sew. I tried to think of what made them decide to pick me for this project, when I decided it was probably the topic I had posted regarding the Shoe Field. One or two people had replied that I seemed a bit obsessed with shoes, but in actuality, I just didn’t want to get my feet dirty. And they were already cold and wet from the melted snow. Somehow I doubted that was too healthy.

Though I couldn’t help but groan at the name (Furgonomics? Was everything in the future going to become a bad pun?) I sent a message back with my information. I then read over the forums further, eventually finding a post about Furgonomics that explained more or less what was said in the message, and providing a bit more information on the company. Nicole Palova was a snow leopardess in charge of the company, which was based in Chicago. Fittingly, since that was where the first Changed showed up. While its purpose for the Changed was obvious, to the public eye its purpose was to find cheaper, more ergonomically sound objects. After making a few posts of my own, I closed down my laptop and headed off to my next class, resolving to check my mail as soon as I got home.

----

The next couple hours passed in something of a blur as I tried not to think too much of Furgonomics and focus on my classes, but it wasn’t always easy with my eagerness dancing about in the back of my head. Finally I managed to get home and, after eating dinner with the family, I went onto my computer and found the form sitting in my e-mail. Apparently it had to be printed out and sent or faxed in, so I quickly did so and went back into my room to look it over.

The first half of the form made sense in what needed to be filled in. Name, current gender (with a checkbox if TG’d), species, age, and so forth. Then there was a diagram of a footpaw, with lines showing all the areas to be measured, including width, length, claw size, height, distance from bottom of paw to heel, from top of paw to heel, and several other measurements I didn’t realize I’d need until now. There was also a note to provide photos as well if possible, as such might help with shaping the shoes, but that was something I probably wouldn’t be able to provide.

The measuring would be easy, but getting the measuring tape without questions being asked wouldn’t be… and in fact wasn’t. My mother caught me trying to take the measuring tape out of her sewing kit, but by being vague about what I was using it for (measuring) I managed to get away without too many questions. The next half hour was spent with me measuring and re-measuring my paws as precisely as I could get over the fur, until finally I got all the data plugged in and the forms filled out. Come Saturday, I’d take a walk out to the post office and send the letter out to Furgonomics. Already I couldn’t wait.

'''December 3rd, 2005'''

Bloody weather. Why did it have to snow again?

Another two inches had come down last night, leaving a fresh untouched blanket over the city. Fun for many kids, but once again frustrating for me as I would leave fresh pawprints, not to mention the soaking… pah, it wouldn’t matter in a couple weeks. I was walking down to the post office now to send the forms I had received to Furgonomics.

Hopping up the stairs, I walked inside, only a few other people out today, and took care of it, sticking a stamp on the envelope and slipping the letter into the out of town slot. Smiling after accomplishing my job, I walked back outside and headed back down the stairs, deciding to get some lunch at Burger King while I was out.

As I pressed the button for the crosswalk, however, I heard a voice coming up to me. “Hey, hey you!” I turned to find a woman walking up to me. “Can I talk with you for a minute?” She had an intrigued look on her face, and I started hearing alarms going off in my head.

“Possibly, I’ll start counting down the seconds,” I said with a slight smirk, trying to put some humor into the comment.

The woman moved up to me. “Sorry I just wanted to ask. Are you one of those…” she glanced around, then leaned in and whispered, “…animal people?”

My eyes widened, but I managed to catch myself before my jaw dropped. “Er, animal people?” I asked, acting confused. “What are you talking about? Don’t I look human to you?”

“Well yes you do,” the woman replied, “but you left pawprints on the stairs over there instead of footprints.” She held up a hand. “Don’t worry if you are, your secret is safe. My husband became a deer two years ago, managed to prove it by stepping in some mud. We haven’t seen any others except on television since.”

It took me a few moments to process that. “I… yes, yeah I am. Um, I’d rather you not spread that around so…”

The woman looked relieved. “Oh don’t worry about that. I’m just glad I managed to find one of you. We’ve had no idea what was going on since it happened.”

I turned as the crossing light changed. “Well come with me to the Burger King and I’ll try and give you a briefing. You can call me LC. What’s your name?” I held out a hand for her, and she shook it. “Bethany. My husband is Martin. Thank you so much for talking with me.” Her hand held mine a bit longer than needed, the thumb moving over its back. “What er… just what are you anyway?”

“A vi- er, a fox. I’m a fox. I take it you don’t know of the network or anything?” She shook her head. I figured I probably shouldn’t get into the TG changed, they’d find out about it on their own and it would make the conversation much easier. Taking my hand back, the two of us walked into the Burger King and I got my food (she had already eaten), the two of us then moving to sit down in a booth. “Alright,” I said, taking a bite of my burger. “What did you want to know?”

“Well what’s going on?” Bethany asked. “Why is Martin a deer, why are you a fox, and how come nobody can see it?”

I let out a sigh. “Good question. Quite frankly, none of us know why or how it’s happening. We don’t know who it’ll happen to, or what’s causing it. All we know is that it happens every August 17th, and twice as many change every year. No reason, no cause, no explanation, no nothing. We’re just trying to cope as well as we can. And before you ask, yes, it IS permanent.”

“How many of you are there? I can’t see you, but Martin says he’s seen you on television now and then. There can’t be that many of you.”

“Right now there’s about a quarter of a million of us worldwide, though most of us are in North America. At least as far as I can tell, I personally haven’t spoken with anyone who’s not American or Canadian.” Chewing over another bite of burger, I looked back at her. “I can give you a couple links to the forums we use to communicate. Do you have a pen or paper?” She nodded and handed me a pen and a blank envelope from her purse. I wrote the address for the NYChanged and main Network forums. “You probably wouldn’t be able to get in, there’s a captcha image that you wouldn’t be able to see properly until you Change, but your husband should be able to get past it.”

Bethany nodded as she took the papers back. “Well, thank you for the info. I’m sure he’ll be glad to find all this out.” I smiled. “You’re welcome. Take care, and send him my regards. We’re all in this together.” She shook my hand again and headed out while I finished up my meal.

That evening when I went on the NYChanged forums I found that Martin had indeed joined up. He was glad to have finally gotten in contact with us, and thanked me for helping him and his wife. I sent a reply to him, and soon after closed down the forums to go to sleep, thoughts of various things running through my head.

'''December 27th, 2005'''

Christmas came and went, and like any year I got some nice things and some that were needed but not desired. Clothes, that is. But it was two days later that I got the present I had been waiting for.

I was sitting in my room playing one of my new games when my mom called me. “Les! You have a package!” Pausing the game I went into the living room, grinning as I realized what it probably was. As I took the box, my mom gave me an odd look. “What’s Future Ergonomics?”

I looked up at her, hesitating a bit as my mind tried to think of something to say. “Oh! It’s um… it’s a new company. They were looking for people to test some of their things and I volunteered. I… figured why not?” Mentally I hit myself for not having a better excuse, and my Mom looked at me.

“You’re seventeen. Why would they let you test it?” She said, looking over me. “Oh well, they… need people from all age groups! Yeah so, I figured I could. Hope that’s alright.” I tried to give a grin.

“And what did they send you?” she asked again, looking down at the box. “Oh, er, shoes.” I said. “More… ergonomical shoes.” She eyed me for a bit longer before nodding with an “alright” and I dashed into my room before she could ask any more questions.

I closed the door and set to opening the box, taking the shoes out of the packing material. To me it almost looked like a high-top boot with the foot part being grossly undersized… if it had been made for a human foot, that is. The part the foot went in was small, but looked about the right size for my foot, thankfully. The rest of it stretched upwards, laces going all along it to the top, complete with tongue underneath. Deciding to test it out, I slipped my foot inside, and felt some of the soft padding within. The laces went up to just under my raised heel, and I tied it up snugly and stood to see how it felt.

For a first try at a boot for Changed, they didn’t do that bad a job. Some parts were rubbing against my fur a little oddly, and the end seemed to be pressing against my claws (although it had been a while since I last clipped them) but otherwise it seemed to be doing its job properly. I slipped on the other boot and walked into the living room, standing before my mom. “So? How do they look?”

She looked down at the boots as I turned around. “Those are… odd looking boots. How do they feel?” I smiled. “A little odd, but I think I’ll get used to it. Most shoes do feel a little odd at first after all.”

She nodded, and I walked back into my room, removing the boots and looking over them. Glad to finally have something on my feet that wasn’t rags, I put them away and returned to my game, looking forward to when I would actually be wearing them when I went back to school.
[[Category:Story]][[Category:Paradise]][[Category:Chessrook44]]{{DEFAULTSORT:Unforseen Gifts}}

User:Chessrook44

2011-09-07T00:22:25Z

Chessrook44:

{{my stories}}
So yeah, um... not much to say here, I don't use Wikis much (like, at all) so this'll probably look very newbish and I should stop talking about it like this and GAHENOUGH!!!!

Anyway, not much to say about me, except for the various ideas I have in mind struggling to get onto virtual paper whenever I can find the motivation to do it. Should anything be created, you shall find it posted here. Expect rare updates. Emphasis on rare.

'''Lester's Tales'''

These stories take place in the Paradise setting. Though I only have two complete, I have plans for more in my mind. Heaven only knows if I'll ever get around to them.

[[User:Chessrook44/Unforseen Changes|Episode 1: Unforseen Changes]]

[[User:Chessrook44/Unforseen Reactions|Episode 2: Unforseen Reactions]]

[[User:Chessrook44/Unforseen Gifts|Episode 3: Unforseen Gifts]] *New!*

'''Paradise One-shots'''

Stories listed here also take place in the Paradise setting, but are one-shots, separate from Lester's Tales.

[[User:Chessrook44/Incarceration|Incarceration]] <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>So many stories have been told of the people who suddenly changed and fought against the change, or tolerated it, or learned to deal with it. But what about those who not only embraced it... but USED it for selfish ends?
{{author page}}

Talk:Paradise (Setting)

2011-08-30T21:06:10Z

Chessrook44: /* The "Posthuman" World */

It's an interesting setting, what I've read so far, and I've got an idea or two percolating that may or may not come to fruition. A seed is trying to sprout for an idea starting in '05 and going forward. - [[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]] 19:50, 10 January 2008

---

After the 2011 crash, the setting lost the most newer storys and the enrichment data inside their related Talk_Pages.
Maybe we can get back these with this -> [http://www.archive.org/web/web.php Internet Wayback Machine] in the far-far future (when the data gets very very old, its then available there).

If the "Paradise_(Setting)" page it´s like an array that canalize the flow of "hot ideas" through it´s "insulated tube-rules" (preventing the "leaking and cooling" of the new storys in their necesary "plot-curves" and "bottlenecks-dramas"). . .
Then the "Talk:Paradise_(Setting)" page it´s like the Virtual Remote Control Panel for that powergrid. When a new "hot idea" pop up in the wrong place or it´s going the wrong direction, a colision alarm sound here!.
The "already resolved discussions" divert automatically the issue, and for the real original new ones, at last offer a series of nearby "exhaust valves" designed for the protection of the "global setting" system.
:--[[User:Argamis|Argamis]] 21:01, 3 February 2011 (UTC)

== Theory on how the Change 'spreads' ==

Been thinking about how it might spread, such that we have a higher proportion of Changed in NA, but not leaving the rest of the world out, and I think I know how.

The 'computer virus' that Changes people, uses the RDF to spread itself. Our 'program's' own protection method is also spreading the damages.

Basically, I am guessing that if the RDF needs to kick in on you, then you are passively 'infected'.

Then, when August 17th comes around, the Virus triggers itself, but it for whatever reason can only copy itself for every previously Changed person. (The Doubling effect), and it can only affect people that have been passively infected, ie people who have had the RDF kick in on them.

The goal of the virus is to spread as far as it can, so it takes the number of new Changed it can, and spreads it more or less evenly across the available (RDF-affected) population.

So the first Changed is in Chicago (I think). Through the year until the next Change, she will encounter thousands of people, even in passing, which triggers the RDF on them and passively infects them.

Come August, 1988, the next Changed will be picked randomly from those thousands of people, and now we'll have 2 people spreading the RDF virus. 1989, a big chunk of Chicago has probably had the RDF trigger at least once, not to mention some tourists and other visitors to the city.

In 89, we get 2 more Changed, and one of them could possibly be in a different random city, just because he'd been to Chicago in the past 2 years and unknowingly seen a Changed, and a new nest of RDF-field affected people starts up.

European and Asian and Oceanic outbreaks could happen in years to come as the number of tourists and business people from those reasons travel into North America and begin to be fielded and infected themselves.

The 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City probably 'infected' most of the people who were around and watching, meaning that by then (if not before) pretty much anyone has a chance to be Changed.

It also means that truly isolated areas of the world (South Pacific islands, isolated Amazonian tribes, etc) could potentially be unchanged after the 2020 deadline; but any encounter at all with a Changed would likely Change them immediately and spread like wildfire through the village)

And while the RDF may 'fail' at some point, it'll probably still be around in a less effective form, trying to maintain some stability and spreading the Change. --[[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]]
:I'll give that some thought. It's somewhat similar to something I already had in mind. Perhaps those who have the RDF fail completely will be much more likely to change the next year, or they might even change out-of-phase. In any case, once they figure out that it's like a communicable disease, and everyone is already 'infected', the remaining humans will go nuts. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 12:35, 27 January 2008 (EST)

The spread and the exact reason for the "double" number each year, is as if the virus had only one chance per year to run it´s replication part code. (And someone sugest the use of "infected flags" for the furry virus to later identify the already changed).

The fractal-but-random nature of the spread means the Virus need the furrys alive for it´s reproduction, but not proximity at all (probably because the "computronium cloud" it´s an 11-dimension construct); so when the change secuence start, it´s because a "superior computational request" (diferent from the virus itself) has the need to do something to all the humans in the world, but not something that change all of them in a masive, blind generic "*.*" way.

If the detection of a emergent post-human-like inteligence is the reason of the "simulation", then it´s logical for the "server" to execute some "checking subrutine" regulary (once per year) on the most inteligent elements; stoping the propagation of uber-mutated-code things that come from outside the simulation.
If the server detects something "wrong" in a human, then It will try to correct any mistakes wihout killing him/her. --[[User:Argamis|Argamis]] 00:54, 4 February 2011 (UTC)

I had my theory of how it works the spread:
Every time one furry see/hear another furry (under the efect of the RDF) the Virus of both exchange <IP-person> links of eachother and save this in the "already changed" Virus Flag.
When a non-infected human see/hear a furry, the Virus try to do some "minor modifications" on the human through the RDF, and then set a "infected" Virus flag on his/her data.

When the server "anual check" detect a human with an "infected" Virus flag, thinks that some very critical "code" is missing in that human, and found a message like: "there is a copy of the same code here: <IP-(furry)person>" (this message and the "missing part" of the code, were the "minor modifications" made by the RDF-Interactive-Section of the Furry Virus).
{The TG Virus do not had this "tricky message" in it´s code, and has to wait the ocurrence of an eventual "copy&paste" for his activation/reproduction (this explain the few hundred human affected for this in thousands of years...), then the relationship between the TG Virus and the Furry Virus is a parasite one (or maybe mutualism, we do not know for sure).}

The server now go to the IP-furry_person and check him/her (see more below), then copy the complete code of the Virus and paste-it in the middle of the code of the "infected" human (because has more elevated access privileges, the "server" can write directly on the most "critical" and "active" part of the code of the infected human, the Virus itself can´t do that); then his/her body it´s "corrected" with the furry data "carried" by the living furry that infected his/her previusly.
The Server set a "xxxx check: DONE" server flag in the new furry (xxxx is the year).
The Virus check the flags, change the "infected" to "already changed" on the newbie furry, and modify his <IP_person> to a higher number (this way every year the server check only the humans and the "infected" humans first).

When the server check a furry, (without the "xxxx check: DONE" of that year) see the "already changed" flag like a "minor" error code, then try to restore his/her original (human) form; but the Virus uses the list of <IP-furry> links, and copy&paste the same Virus code again and again from multiple sources... {this is only posible between furry<->furry , the read&write its not restricted between active "brother" Viruses. In fact some "real virus" an P2P users works like this ^_^)
The server left the furry "minor" code intact, but set "xxxx check: FAIL" flag on him/her and go for the next...
Every time one infected human goes furry, the "check" on the previus furry Virus "carrier" blocks any posibility of ANOTHER human infected (by the same "carrier") goes to furry that year.

This way, every year the contact between every group of furries<->humans AND furries<->furries it´s equal in importance (for the expansion of the Virus) as it was the previusly year, the IP-furry-links only can double the efective total number of furry if already exist some conection between all of they (pasive in great citys, active search&contact in more remote regions). --[[User:Argamis|Argamis]] 00:54, 4 February 2011 (UTC)

== Change and disabilities? ==

I keep forgetting to bring this up on IRC, but how do people (as in writers and other interested people in this setting) think disabilities would be affected by the change? Both Mental and Physical?

Would a paraplegic who lost his legs in an accident regrow them if he changed? Would he regain the use of them if they weren't lost but just disabled? (back injury)? What about false teeth, deafness, blindness, etc?

What if the cause was not from a physical accident, but was viral or bacterial in nature? Some disease struck them blind? Would they stay blind?

And what if the disabilities were genetic? Would those genetic flaws still show in the new form?

Finally, what about mental disabilities? Could the Change 'cure' Alzheimer's? Would it affect someone who is literally a brain dead vegetable on life support?

If it does have curative properties, I suspect we'll start seeing more and more miracle cures (assuming they can survive the flu) in the years to come. Which may imply that there'll be a push in the early to mid 2010's to just keep someone alive as long as possible in the home they Change and are cured/fixed.

Thoughts?

--[[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]] 11:00, 4 February 2008 (EST)

:I think there are good arguments to be made for some healing properties of the Change, but I wouldn't make it go all out. A person missing a limb should still be missing a limb after the change (I have in mind a scene with a one-armed pianist who goes monkey and starts playing with his feet).

:When it comes to things like Alzheimer's, that is a much more difficult choice. I don't see mental retardation being suddenly healed by the Change, as that is a birth defect (and such things happen in animals too). But progressive diseases may backtrack, even if the conditions begin to return over time. That could make an even more painful story, somebody suffering from Alzheimer's, who Changes and now recognizes all his family again. But after a year or so everything starts to slip away again...

:Anyway, the whole keeping folks alive and hoping for a Change could make a good dynamic too. I just think there's a lot fo possibilities to consider before we make a decision on this. --[[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]] 12:24, 4 February 2008 (EST)
::I'm inclined to do as Matthias suggests. It's more or less what I had in mind. However, one of the things that the Change does is it puts everyone in very good health. Even being a 300 pound female bear, CM is in very good shape. It will cure some ailments, and put chronic diseases into remission. Those developments will confuse the medical community enough without regrowing limbs or curing Down's Syndrome. But if you've read the latest Tall Tales, ROB is being forced to act more openly. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 15:40, 4 February 2008 (EST)

:What happens to medical devices like heart pacemakers or hip replacements that were implanted in people before they changed? --[[User:JeniSkunk|Jenifur Charne]] 20:45, 10 February 2008 (EST)

::That's basically an open-ended question. I'm going to leave the answer to that one unsaid because I think it'd be a good Plot Point in a story. A furry episode of ''House'' maybe? --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 22:45, 10 February 2008 (EST)

::Late into the discussion, but better late than never. : ) Anyway, what about things like fillings and caps on teeth? Going to a dentist would be interesting. Going another step, outside medical devices wouldn't fit anymore and would bring up some unique delimas. What about people with prosthetics? If someone turns into a bear, I'm sure their leg isn't going to fit anymore, yet Unknown will wonder why they make such a claim all of a sudden. Lots of places to go with these stories. [[User:Tinbender|Tinbender]] 21:24, 5 May 2008 (EDT)

Hey, not really sure on any of the points raised, have to give it some thought. One thing to consider though is can anthro's act as a bridge to humans for viruses that currently only affect animals?--[[User:Devin|Devin]] 23:35, 10 February 2008 (EST)

== A mortal analysis of Paradise ==

Lets me see if I get some of the details right.

There is a post-singularity Uber-computer, that when projected into 3-space, has the same consistency as humanity's combined thumbnail and happens to be running a simulation of the events leading up to its own creation. Secondly, it gets infected by a super-bug/virus that makes borg nano-probes look overly large and cumbersome. Said post-singularity, sentient, ROB-type entity/ virus changes some lines of code (if such things can be referred to as such) in reference to the people in the simulation, in and around the vicinity of Chicago (maybe the super-bug's designers had way-distant ancestors from there, or whose ancestors had a grudge against the place). The Uber-comp, in a flash of inspiration counters with the 'firewall-from-not-heck', or RDF as we understand it. The ROB is still successful with its dastardly and despicable plan to make the simulated history end differently.

That I get as far as it can be understood by a three-dimensional entity not particularly versed in post-singularity, multi-dimensional physics and computational theory.

The RDF, The Veil, The "Really-Annoying-Mess-Up-Everyones-Lives" Field, appears to start collapsing or 'twisting' in several personal accounts. In fact, it would seem that there are certain individuals who have appeared to figure out means of 'gazing-past' the gaps in said previously mentioned field even though they do not have one of their own. Yes it has been theorized that they will soon fall victim to the ROB, however, consider that all of this is in one sense mere coding (albeit it happens to be far more complex than that), and that said people are taking advantage of 'bugs' in the code. How many bugs are there? Is it possible for someone (probably a changed, or mad scientist) to 'tune' or 'tinker' with the field, probably no more than tweaks to appearance or color? I know the Primary Engineer Of This Work has stated that there are no 'powers', but then again, this is all just code, and hackers can sometimes be just mortal.

Just a thought or two. I should probably stop this monologue before a super spy shows up.
~midon~

:You're pretty close overall, though the simulation doesn't necessarily have to be of the ROB's own creation. Human Earth could be something It came up with all by Itself. Another book that's similar to what I've come up with here is ''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwinia_(novel) Darwinia]''. Someone suggested that the best thing for the ROB to do is to restore from backup. The thing is, these are still people. ROB doesn't have a moral problem with allowing them to die within the sim, but will act to protect both itself and its people from an outside threat. Hence the RDF and other measures.--[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 17:46, 4 February 2008 (EST)

== Thinking far future... ==

First, to make it VERY clear, I am NOT thinking of any stories or anything set in the 2020 period yet. I've just been thinking of how the world may be like by then, as the last half are about to change.

I suspect there would be a mix of celebration (the last humans are joining us!) and mourning (humans will no longer be as they were). Regionally, there will probably be searches for the "last human baby", the ones born days/hours before the last Aug 17 change; they'd probably be local celebrities, similar to "New Years Babies"

And in 2021, the nervousness would start. Is the change source gone? Is it mutating? Are we going to change further? Or into something else now? For the Changed Generation, that little shiver of fear every August 17th will probably persist until they are all gone.

All that assumes civilization hasn't fallen apart by then of course. :)

--[[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]] 10:42, 25 February 2008 (EST)

== Summer Olympics ==

This was nagging at the back of my mind a bit, but I finally nailed it down to actually check dates:

:"The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, will be celebrated from August 8, 2008 to August 24, 2008".

For the record, the 2004 Olympics also just straddled the Change day, having started on Aug 13th. No other Summer Olympics have straddled Change day, but the 1996 games ended just before it, and the Paralympic Games that year did straddle the Change day.

The 2012 games in London curiously have a break between the end of the Olympics on Aug 12, 2012, and the start of the Paralympics on Aug 29.

Just something to think about for writers out there. :)

--[[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]] 10:07, 27 February 2008 (EST)

:The Change takes place right in the middle of the Olympics. All it takes is for one or two athletes to change to gum up the works. These people are already in top physical shape, too. But what happens when a swimmer becomes a dolphin, an otter, or perhaps something that doesn't swim well? I don't think the RDF can handle becoming as large as a rhino. They'll still displace an awful lot of water when they splash in.

:I'll have to mention this in Open Secrets.

:--[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 14:53, 27 February 2008 (EST)

::At least the illness will be a bit of a cover. Depending on how many Changed athletes there are, (both active and new Changed), the illness could be used to skip out on some events out of necessity.

::Still the pressure to perform, even if their form is inappropriate for the sport (A Bull trying to do a polevault or the triathlon in general? A bear for gymnastics? A Mouse in weightlifting? ) will be intense

::There would probably be a lot of discussion when a star athlete suddenly isn't performing as well as they did before.

::Of course, a few years after that, the Beijing Olympics here will probably end up with a * like the LA and Moscow Olympics, as people find out about the Change and the number of ringers (otters in swimming events, felines and primates in gymnastics, gazelles and cheetahs in track events, bears and bulls in weight lifting, etc...) semi-intentionally sent by the various countries. We could very well see TTC-level problems happening in Olympic Village.

--[[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]] 15:07, 27 February 2008 (EST)

== What happens ''after'' 2020? ==

Point one: Computer programs are never ''intrinsically'' equipped with an off-switch. Rather, a shutdown condition must be explicitly coded into a program -- and any program which ''lacks'' an explicit shutdown condition, will continue to chug merrily along until something hardware-ish gets in the way.

Point two: The Change is the result of a 'furry virus", ''i.e.,'' a '''computer program'''.

2020 is when the entire planetary population will be furry... but who's to say the 'furry virus' won't ''continue'' to do its thing, Changing people year in and year out, with each year's quantity of Changes being double that of the year before? We know that being Changed is ''not'' an absolute protection against the 'furry virus' -- the setting rules themselves ''explicitly allow'' previously-Changed people to get hit with another dose of Change, after all -- so ''either'' (a) the 'furry virus' ''does'' have an explicitly-coded off-switch, or else (b) starting in 2020, an ever-increasing number of people are going to end up Changing ''two or more times in any given year.''

If the 'furry virus' ''has'' a built-in off-switch, that begs the question of what, exactly, its shutdown condition ''is.'' Does it stop spreading/infecting when there's no unchanged Human left, is it waiting for some specific event or combination of events before it quits, or what? Perhaps the guy who wrote the 'furry virus' did so with the specific intent of encouraging ROB to make [insert specific changes here] in ROB's virtual world, such that the results of those changes are the virus's 'off-switch'?

If, on the other hand, the 'furry virus' has ''no'' built-in brakes, things can get weird, fast. People have already floated the notion of Changes happening "out of season"; what if these 'unscheduled' Changes are merely a harbinger of things to come, in which people can be re-zapped at any time of year, an arbitrarily large number of times per year? It may be instructive, or at least amusing, to extrapolate the data given in "The Numbers", and divide each year's expected number of Changes by the expected population for that year: In 2020, there's 1.12 Changes per person (perhaps every human being Changes, regardless of their current state, and there's a 12% chance of one guy Changing ''twice?).'' Since we're basically talking about a doubling function, it only takes until 2024 for every ex-human to be an involuntary member of the Change Of The Month Club (because there's a touch over 17 Changes per person that year), and the Change Of The '''Day''' Club starts up in 2029 (during which year there's a bit less than 514 Changes per person per year). In 2034, the extrapolated number of Changes per person for that year is significantly over 15,000 (which works out to about 7/4 of a Change ''per hour,'' every hour, for every human being); by 2040, we hit 1.75 Changes per ''minute;'' 2046 is when every human being starts to hit 1 Change per ''second.''

To repeat what I said above: Things get weird, fast.

Obviously, the above figures are ridiculous, since they're derived from mindless extrapolation of an exponential curve. Perhaps the most sensible way to go is to presume that ROB manages to ''do'' something about the metatstasizing 'furry virus' no later than 2025 or so. In any case, one hopes said figures at least provide a bit of food for thought... [[User:Cubist|Cubist]] 05:03, 10 March 2008 (EDT)

== Change and the Media ==

It's probably a sign that I watch WAY too much TV, but it's a theme that's been in the back of my mind (man that back area's getting mighty crowded with ideas). As the Change progresses, even with the Veil in place, more and more effects of the Change will start showing up in other ways, and it will become more and more 'public' even if the Unchanged won't really know what is going on. I suspect TV shows especially will begin to show a lot of these.

This is just some of my rambling thoughts on what the TV Cable signals might be sending to the screens of the Changed near-Future.

Reality TV in all its forms will probably be the first to really start showing the effects of the Changed, since they tend to have the fastest turnaround time and the most contact with non-actors. Court shows (like I wrote in my short story case) will have more and more cases of Changed vs Norms and even weird Changed vs Changed cases. "He won't share the nail clippers!" "She gifted me the money for the vacation to Alaska in January")

Gameshows also will start having more Changed contestants, especially popular ones like Price is Right.

And then you have the Survivor types. Show's like "Top Model" and "Bachelor(ette)" and "Blind Date" (especially given the Change's habit of giving the Changed Eye-turning bodies) will probably have the most Changed on a show early on (whether intentionally or unintentionally).

Home Makeover shows may start seeing even weirder designs as designers/homeowners remake rooms to give room for antlers or bigger buttons for hoof fingers and such. (We thought Frank's designs on Trading Spaces were weird BEFORE he Changed... :P )

Amazing Race may have a Changed Team soon; a few Changed in the Big Brother House (probably intentionally put in there by a Changed Studio staffer), and the next Survivor or two would probably have some contestants.

Once the Field comes down, I fully expect CBS to roll out a "Furries vs Normals" Survivor while they can.

Now onto more tasteful TV. (arguably :P )

Cartoons? (what few new ones that are made) will likely start having more and more of a furry bend to them. Hallowe'en specials may turn 'human' toons into furry ones as experiments to transition shows.

Soaps? Expect Change stories fairly soon I dare say. I don't watch them myself, but from what I've heard of some storylines they've done in the past, the Change isn't all that strange. These writers will probably be chaffing at the restrictions of the Field the most.

Sitcoms will probably start getting Changed in-jokes fairly quickly as more Changed writers and actors come on staff. Some of the jokes may verge on Veil-breaking too, but viewers would discount as visual FX.

Procedurals/Drama's, business as normal but more Change-related stories. Maulings and gorings investigated on CSI's (along with strange fingerprints/bootprints, hair samples, etc...), Without a Trace investigating people who disappear after Change Day, maybe even a TG mystery. Numb3rs maybe touching on the Change rate (imagine Chris brought in as an advisor for an ep ? :) ). House or ER dealing with a Changed patient and/or Changed doctors/nurses.

And finally (for now) Sci Fi/Fantasy shows will probably find themselves in a very difficult position. On the one hand, they'd be ideal to start exploring the Change itself. On the other hand, as long as the Field is in effect, they can't really explore them since they'd have to turn normals into Furry's (or dress furry's in fursuits). Plus, a show's setting may not exactly be ideal for adjusting to the Change. "SG-1/Atlantis" may be able to adjust (turn it into an Ori curse or something), but Terminator would have a harder time. Heroes could probably pull it off, but BSG? Unlikely. (Imagine them finding 'Earth' but it's a Furry Earth... Hmmm...)

Anyways, that's just some of my rambling thoughts on the TV of the near future, for what its worth.

:There's a simple way to make furries show up in Television. Simply use the polarized lenses as featured in Open Secrets on the video camera units. The image of the furries would pass through the polarized lenses onto the film. The film would record the true image in the same way that people would see the true image. Boom, RDF circumvented. --[[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]] 12:26, 28 January 2009 (EST)

:: True those would work. But everyone involved for those scenes would have to Know or questions would be raised. Depending on the scene and production. (Thouhg some could be handwaved, as long as the producer/editors Know. "Bob's gonna play the part of a man-rat for this scene. We'll CG-replace him in Editing afterward"

::--[[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]] 12:33, 28 January 2009 (EST)

::: Well, at the very least, the cameraman is going to be in the know fast! Actually, I could see something like this being done once things go public. We could have a documentary on the early Changed (while you can still get human actors!), and you'd have some cameras with the filter on it and some without so you could show what the Changed sees and what the unsuspecting humans around him see. --[[User:98.236.12.68|98.236.12.68]] 05:14, 29 January 2009 (EST)

:::: That is happening to some extent, though not with the filters yet. Shiloh (and her new boyfriend newly Changed this year) are doing what they can to document the Change and how it affects lives as it happens (on the side from their main jobs), and I'm sure she's far from alone on this.

:::: Once more Documentary makers get ahold of this and it goes public, I'm sure there will be more too.

::::--[[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]] 10:33, 29 January 2009 (EST)

== Furries in Space? ==

OK Time for even more thoughts from me. :) Endeavor's launch last night triggered this thought.

I'm not going to elaborate, but is anyone watching the ISS crew for change symptoms? Or the shuttle crew if they're up? A Change up there could be Veil breaking just because of the amount of attention and lack of privacy those people have. (not to mention the extreme circumstances they'd be under).

The Change itself could very well spell the end of Manned space flight for the next few decades in the end.

Not sure if it would spell the end of manned space flight but yeah even just an examination of the air filter would find stuff that couldn't have gotten up there any other way.--[[User:Devin|Devin]] 19:16, 11 March 2008 (EDT)

:I'm sure it'd be the end of manned space flight for quite some time simply for economic reasons if nothing else. This is going to be rather disruptive and there'll probably be a bit of a budget pinch. [[User:Bryan|Bryan]] 19:21, 18 March 2008 (EDT)

==The Reality Distortion Field is Real ==

Sadly, not the one you have in mind: http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/18/2117208 :) [[User:Bryan|Bryan]] 19:21, 18 March 2008 (EDT)

== Bats? ==

Just a question about the species: I've noticed you put aside birds for now, but what about bats?--[[User:142.68.130.19|142.68.130.19]] 23:52, 1 April 2008 (EDT)

:Bats will put a huge strain on the Veil. If/when they do show up, it might be coming down by then anyway. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 00:36, 2 April 2008 (EDT)

== Farming in Paradise ==

Just shooting an idea in here for later. [http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080410153658.htm This is the technology] widely deployed it the Paradise setting. But put the clock back ten years (1997 discovery, widespread global deployment by 2008). Biochar/agrichar. With any luck, the Green Revolution will be replaced with the Black Gold Revolution quickly. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 03:27, 15 April 2008 (EDT)

== BioFuels ==

Jon, you're beginning to scare me a bit. :P

This was just on Slashdot this morning: [http://www.utexas.edu/news/2008/04/23/biofuel_microbe/ New Source for Biofuels Discovered by Researchers At The University of Texas at Austin]

Basically, some bacteria that can make cellulose which can be turned to fuel, and the cellulose can be harvested without harming the bacteria.
--[[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]] 06:10, 25 April 2008 (EDT)

:I read about this yesterday. They hope to increase production efficiency 17-fold because otherwise, you'd have to cover the ''entire'' Midwest with this. Unfortunately it won't happen fast enough to prevent the shortages I know are coming.

:I read about this stuff every day. I mean, ''every'' day. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 14:19, 25 April 2008 (EDT)

Another bit of news: [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4133668.ece "Scientists find bugs that eat waste and excrete petrol."] --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 11:12, 15 June 2008 (EDT)

== The Chicago Ghost Killer ==

After having seen countless videos of Persona 3 on youtube, and having played the .hack//GU games, and having read about this setting repeatedly, this idea was born out of my skull. It doesn't really fit with the setting per-say, (people dealing with expected changes in their lives and the changing of culture as truth becomes harder and harder to keep hidden), but it's still interesting.

Imagine if once the number of furries hits the thousand mark or close to it (1997), a strange series of murders begin in Chiago and wander outwards. To normal police and investigators these people have -nothing- in common, just random innocent people. But the furries know that every single person killed was a furry! Now this is where things start to get weird.

When seen by furries, the killer is a lanky laid back twenty something raven haired young man whose expression almost always remains passive wearing semi-formal dark clothes with a revolver in one hand and spare bullets in the opposite pocket.

When the police just about anyone else whose effected by the perception filter see him, they see 'Average Joe' or 'Face You Can't Help But Forget' and never ever notice the weapon he's holding unless he hits them with it or shoots them or something just as drastic. It is also is picked up by metal detectors the same as any metal gun. In other words, his existence, is like the existence of furriness to normal humans, his existence effects them, but they can't notice him directly.

This guy always knows a furry when he sees one regardless of media or medium, or reads one, this include file records of people TGed by the virus. When he spots one or finds out about one, he calmly location that person, in order of him learning about them, and shoot that person in the head without fanfare then simply move on to the next one.

Physically his strength and speed are all perfectly average human, meaning a bear or tiger furry could easy tear him apart.

Strange thing is that if profiled, no records of him will turn up, anywhere!

Also, he might even begin to appear DIFFERENTLY to people who are under the effect of the perception filter. He can't appear as a furry, and can NEVER EVER appear as a precise person (he can't appear as someone's mother or brother). But he can ultimately change how people look at him, they see a five year old girl with a teddy bear opposed to a man with a revolver even if he STILL can't fit in a toy car for the life of him and that 'bear' might go off if someone else 'hugs' it, (which he'd avoid someone doing at all posts). He could also appear as a fire fighter or police officer if he gets clever enough. Though furries will -always- see through this disguise. Along with any human whose able to see furries without effort.

The Chicago Ghost Killer never attacks non-changed humans, and will never take a shot if there's a reasonable chance of shooting a non-changed person.

He travels by mundane methods, he always travels by the most practical and speedy method and always has the correct change or ticket (this is not an illusion). His taxi, train, or airplane never crash.

If detained for questioning, he might just walk straight out of the police station unless some of the cops are furries. If stripped of his weapon and ammo next time he shows up he'll have a new set perfectly identical to the last one down to the imperfections in the casing.

Now this is where things get ambiguous. I don't know if he's killed he just appears in Chicago the day after the change again each year, or weather two different people with abilities similar to his appear in his stead these armed with a crossbow and another one shot distance weapon.

Since deleting the entire universe is not an option, The Chicago Ghost Killer might be an emergency fail safe to try and cut off the infected flesh from the system.

His name comes from where he started killing (strangely the same place as the changes began) and the fact that to normal humans he IS like a ghost, there yet not there but decidedly felt.

I know this doesn't really fit with the setting at all, but I just had to share it with the only people who'd appreciate it.

Thank you.

- Alex Warlorn. 2008 06 15

:And his name is Agent Johnathan Walker Smith, is it? Seems like a Matrix Agent to me... (unsigned comment)
::Actually I don't think he'd -have- a name, or even know the true nature of the world, he'd just know what he -had- to do and how to do it and how he can do it.-- Alex Warlorn

== Octuplets born in California ==

Things that make you go Hmmmm....

8 babies at once
Planning to breast feed them all.
Names not being released (yet).

Could we have a changed couple hiding out there from the glare of the media spotlight? :)

--[[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]] 15:25, 27 January 2009 (EST)

=='''Future RDF Failure'''==

I'm starting to work out ideas about how the RDF would fail. My current thinking is that it will work on a small scale first. Visually, there would be a "refraction", like seeing your own eyes through your glasses. Or your leg halfway in a pool. This is the "Refraction Effect". These are places where the RDF has been removed, like a section of glass, revealing the Real World underneath. It's gone. The visual effect makes it clear a border's been crossed. I'm not sure ''when'' this is going to happen. Probably sometime near the US Gov wants to go public. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 07:57, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

===Weirdness Censor?===

I've been thinking about an "RDF Lite" that could basically act as a Weirdness Censor instead of the full blown see-furries-as-humans version that exists right now. There'd still be social upheaval, but not the civilization-ending type that would most likely happen. I'm very likely going to do this in After Hours, but I want to do it right. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 23:37, 21 May 2009 (UTC)

==Shoe Field Failure?==

[http://www.boingboing.net/2011/03/16/hoof-shoes.html Hoof shoes for about $1,700 ]. What's next? Paw shoes? --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 21:06, 16 March 2011 (UTC)

==The "Posthuman" World ==

In order to differentiate this setting from WoC more, I'm going to keep a certain number of regular humans in the furry world that results when the virus runs its course. Same rules as other furry types as far as parent-child species. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 19:41, 4 June 2009 (UTC)

:No offense, but that feels like a cop-out to me. As someone else pointed out, a computer virus is NOT going to simply 'burn itself out' a computer virus continues like any program infinitely unless it's directly ordered to. Once it runs out of humans to transform, it'll start to transform furries into other species, and become even more chaotic as time progresses. I just feels cheap the virus suddenly just stops, and it doesn't make sense form a programming point of view either since it would open MANY MORE cans of worms anyway. -- Alex Warlorn June 15 2009

::Okay. How to address this? A lot of my ideas for this setting comes from Charles Stross's work, which can get pretty mind-bending at times. ''Accelerando, Glasshouse, Singularity Sky'', and ''Iron Sunrise'' all come to mind. One of my basic assumptions is that the Furry Virus is itself sentient/sapient, but it's not ''quite'' as smart as the transhuman intelligence running the Simulation Space that is our universe (down to the Planck Length).

::The RDF was a last-ditch effort to maintain the experiment as it was. We're all a bunch of microbes, as far as ROB is concerned. But It's not the type of Being to just chuck the whole experiment into the incinerator and start over. At this point ROB has scrapped the original experiment in favor of trying to prevent our little petri dish universe from going completely bad. So, 1) contain the Furry Virus, and 2) prevent it from doing any more damage beyond 2020 by creating a specific End State. The FV remains, but it becomes an uncommon chronic disease.

::Frankly, now that furries and the TGed have been Outed ROB may even stop the history editing. More obvious actions include: Refilling dead oilfields, creating social conditions so humans aren't really surprised at the Change. There are probably all kinds of countermeasures ROB has done that I haven't thought of in order to keep people from going ''crazy crazy'' and incinerating their own petri dish. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 03:57, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

:::I was thinking of a similar idea, but in a programming context as opposed to a biological one, and ''very'' limited. Think of every person as an element of an array, i.e. Human[]. An algorithm designed to change the values of every element, like the furry virus is doing, would most likely go from 0 to some constant POPULATION_HUMAN. In that case, ROB might be able to circumvent the effects for the virus for a select few by assigning people to special values: NULL, NaN, -1, MAX_INT, INFINITY, or other predefined numbers, even those that aren't considered "special" to humans. The purpose of this would be to preserve ''some'' unaltered "data" for purposes not important to us, and it can't be done for all humans because of the effort or memory required to "manually" fix so many values.

:::Conversely, perhaps ROB will let the virus run its course so It can then safely run a variation of the virus to turn everyone back into humans. That would be another interesting take: when the world's furry in 2020, how will everyone feel when they find out they'll all be human again by about 2055, depending on population, and perhaps if the same thing happens in cycles? ...

:::...Or if it turns out that life has been this way for a long, ''long'' time. Thinking back to what ROB has been able to do, this is easily within Its power. -- [[User:MisterBackground|MisterBackground]] 05:31, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

::::ROB figures it's best to let the virus run its course then neutralize it like I've described. Perhaps ROB's reworking the Experiment to account for the new changes.--[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 06:04, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

:::::Colons! Colons as far as the eye can see! Ahaha.

:::::One little problem I had with ''Accelerando'' (though I did indeed love it in all other respects) was how completely unfathomable the Higher Beings were. You never could figure out what their reasons were for anything…and in fact, in all their interactions with the remnants of pre-Singularity humanity, they mostly seemed to delight in "poking the anthill". Sending boatloads of recreations of historical and fictitious characters out to that space station just to mess with humanity's minds. And not only could you not ask them why, you wouldn't be able to understand their answer if you did. Hence, one of the things that you hope you learn in the end—the question of "why?"—is forever unanswered.

:::::It would be kind of nice to have some of the characters eventually be able to confront ROB and the virus and ask them what the deal was, but I'm not holding my breath any. —[[User:Robotech Master|Robotech Master]] 06:22, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

::::::I'm very, ''very'' careful not to jump the shark. But at the very least ROB does have some empathy for us microbes. While ROB does do some "resimulation" for TGed folk, it absolutely ''will not'' alter memories because that would cause personality death.

::::::Paradise is more similar too ''[http://www.amazon.com/Darwinia-Novel-Different-Twentieth-Century/dp/0812566629 Darwinia]'' than ''Accelerando''. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 18:58, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

:::Another possibility I just thought about: perhaps this isn't the act of a virus at all. Instead this is the fix to an ancient "Human Virus" that infected the universe, and it's just restoring the original experiment (or whatever). Or if you ''really'' want to throw people off: humanity ''is'' the virus itself, and this is how ROB is solving the problem. -- [[User:MisterBackground|MisterBackground]] 07:25, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

::Well, to be fair, this is a post-Singularity virus. Nobody ever said it was strictly one-function only. For all we know, it may have a behavioral change programmed into it. "Take Z action until condition A is met, then switch to taking Y action until condition B is met, etc." Or heck, the virus itself may be a sentient/sapient digital life form with free will, fully able to "change its mind" when it wants to. Certainly there is some intelligent agency at work behind the Reality Distortion Field that has already shown the ability to change its own behavior or react to changes in infected people's situations (changing TG furs' "ghosts"—and all extant records—from male to female when they get pregnant, for instance). No reason the virus can't be the same way. —[[User:Robotech Master|Robotech Master]] 23:32, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

:How is that going to work? I'm not sure how humanity can propagate by the "same rules" as other furry types given that it's been established humans and furres are not able to interbreed. Perhaps there might be an inverse of the Sleeping Sickness (a Waking Sickness? :) which causes furries to randomly mutate back into human in addition to the other types of furry form? —[[User:Robotech Master|Robotech Master]] 22:31, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

::Two thoughts: 1) In 2021 there's a group of humans worldwide who don't Change. They're simply the one species among many. After this point they can breed with furres because the RDF is down anyway. Perhaps they can already do this in Bubbled areas in 2010. 2) Human forms can be a recessional trait that shows up on occasion, between two furres.

::Furry babies already look ''very'' human due to a type of neoteny. Even the herbivores like horses and deer have very stubby muzzles. It looks more like a mask when they're born. Within two years those muzzle stubs grow the "baby animal" proportions, then as normal. They're generally more thinly furred for those first two years also. I keep thinking of puppies. No matter what the breed, they all look ''extremely'' similar when newborn. Same will be true in this setting. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 23:55, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Additionally, TG and TF will continue. I'm thinking of something akin to Matthias' character, with random changes. It'll be considered a chronic disease. And the severe forms ''can'' kill you. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 06:40, 5 June 2009 (UTC)

::I know this addition to the comment is like 2 years after this discussion happened (not counting the little server loss and what may have been lost there) but anyway, I had a thought here, although it's admittedly more biological-related than computer-related. Specifically, what if certain people just happened to have an immunity to the furry virus? Nobody would know they were immune until 2020 when they don't change. Whether natural, or a last-ditch effort by the RDF that came too late for almost everyone else, it could theoretically be an explanation.--[[User:Chessrook44|Chessrook44]] 21:06, 30 August 2011 (UTC)

== Possibly the first occurance of ROB ==

As I mentioned when I introduced him, ROB (Random Omnipotent Being) comes from some other message boards I regularly view/visit. Well someone seems to have found what may have been the first occurrence of ROB. [http://forums.spacebattles.com/showthread.php?t=53955] Pretty humble beginnings for him if you ask me. :) (His brother, COROB (Crossover Obsessed Random Omnipotent Being) similarly had humble beginnings a month or so later. [http://forums.spacebattles.com/showthread.php?t=55397] )

== The RDF and extra extremities. ==

Assume here that the RDF is functioning normally and hasn't broken down. Normal humans can't feel the extra extremities of the Changed, like tails and horns - they just feel empty air. But what would another Changed see if they were to look at a normal human attempting to touch a Changed's tail? Would they see the human seemingly passing their hand through the tail of the Changed? [[User:CNash|CNash]] 23:52, 15 July 2009 (UTC)

:I think you've got it wrong. Extra extremities can still be physically felt. The RDF is like a holographic cloak around the changed - it doesn't actually have an effect on their form. -- [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] 00:57, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

:Shadow is basically correct. Their hand wouldn't pass through empty air. They would meet some weird resistance, but they'd forget about it in a short time. Other Changed would see them touch the tail they can't see. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 01:03, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

:: I was going by a line in "Made Alone"; CM's diary entry: ''I say, `Oh yeah, here, grab my tail'. He humors me, but he cannot feel it. I feel him put his hand on it, but he just doesn't feel it.'' - I haven't yet read through all the stories and I'm going chronologically. [[User:CNash|CNash]] 11:26, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

:::If there's one thing I've learned about running a shared setting is to ''not'' demand ironclad continuity. I always allow authors leeway for dramatic purposes, and I don't mind if events don't quite match up. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 00:19, 17 July 2009 (UTC)

::::Given that is the earliest described Change event, I just assumed that the Veil was stronger back then, and since lessened to the extent of allowing feeling of extremities. —[[User:Robotech Master|Robotech Master]] 07:32, 17 July 2009 (UTC)

== Glitch ==

Assertion one: Universe of Paradise setting is mathmatically generated by advanced post-singularity computer. Assertion two: Pre-singularity computers have demonstrated randomized renumbering of internal programing due to outside factors. These renumberings are identified as "glitches," having no basis in programming like bugs and viruses. Assumption: Post singularity computer operates with similar if heavily advanced hardware as pre-singularity computer. Conclusion: Randomized renumberings of programming will occur independently of programming. That is to say, it is not inconceivable that somewhere, a coffee cup on the table is suddenly on the counter. Or that an ant becomes a different species of ant. Or that a gray-eyed man one day has blue eyes. Perhaps these small changes are common and constant. -- [[User:Masterweaver|Masterweaver]] 05:28, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

== Species Expansion ==

We have already seen at least one Elephant man. Is the Furry Virus, as it expands, drawing from a larger gene base? And if so, when would the first nonmammalians arise? Personally, I'm expecting crocs in the near future. Perhaps even 2010... -- [[User:Masterweaver|Masterweaver]] 22:41, 11 November 2009 (UTC)

:The setting is mammals only. Reptiles and birds have very different reproductive biologies. Birds wouldn't be able to fly and cold-blooded creatures can't support a human-like brain and its energy requirements. -- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 01:04, 12 November 2009 (UTC)

== An observation ==

From what I've read, the 'computer simulation' theory is just that- a theory. There's no point blank evidence that this is what's happening within the storyline, and, while I obviously shouldn't just stroll in and rewrite things, but I'd ask the main participators in this storyline to keep this in mind. -- [[User:MCMackers|MCMackers]] -- (note added by [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] 22:43, 12 November 2009 (UTC))

:Jon is the creator of the setting and he has final say in these things... He has not ruled on this yet, but I think he will if it becomes a problem. -- [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] 22:43, 12 November 2009 (UTC)

== If a person doesn't TF again next year... ==

Maybe I missed something. Is it right that if a person doesn't TF again the year after they first change, they stop changing for good? Thinking of the story's setting (computer simulation), if the change is caused by a virus, surely it could keep affcting people? If that doesn't make sense I'll expand, but surely someone knows what I'm talking about. -- [[User:MCMackers|MCMackers]] -- signature added by [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] )

:First it's "bear", not "bare" - homophones are a big stumbling point for a large portion of people, so I try to help people where I can with them :)

: Second... Remember that the whole "post-singularity simulation infected by a virus" schtick is just one possible cause. Jon has said that it could be, but has not pinned it on that. If it really is a virus, then there is a possibility that you could change again 20 years down the line. However... It might be that the multi-change people are somehow an exception - like the virus leaves behind a flag saying "infected" (you'll find this with existing computer viruses, actually) and with multi-changers this flag is missing. Or it could be that the multi-changers are actually being created because of ROB trying to undo the damage done by the virus. And a third possibility is that there is no "virus" and the change is happening according to a plan setup by the people that programmed the simulation - and the multi-changers were randomly selected to be multi-changers.

:In other words... Even if you assume that the postulated "post-singularity simulation" is reality the change could be more than a virus and the limits on multiple changes could be somehow tied directly to the purposes that the simulation was created for... Anyway... I've gone on too long with this. -- [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] 19:03, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

::Ugh. I actually thought whilst typing, "that's not right, it should be bare..." blast. So much for trying to write a story if I can't do that kind of simple thing.

::Thanks for your help. I'm trying to make sure I understand the setting as best I can so I can make my story (hopefully a series, but maybe I'm being a bit ambitious) as best as possible. I'm trying to break the mould... Most characters in the Paradise setting seem to be similar. If my first attempt works, I might try one with a different character... Actually, I'd probably do it even if it didn't work :) -- [[User:MCMackers|MCMackers]]

:::Just to be clear, it is a simulation running on a post-Singularity cloud of computronium. And it is a virus doing the dirty work. :) -- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 02:34, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

:::: *GACK* - Last time I read the setting page that was still a "speculation" bit :( -- [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] 08:10, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

== Human/Furry detail ==

More prattling, sorry. Bear with me (Heh. Got it right this time.).

The information on smaller details in the differences between humans and furs is irritatingly lax, and I hit a block while writing my own story stressing over an incredibly minor detail. My problem aside, I think that the lack of detail makes it awkward to write... Would two characters that changed into the same species be exactly the same anatomically? I'm not sure. A couple of stories have thrown me in that respect, mainly "A Kind of Paradise", and "Twisting the Veil". I feel like I'm having a bit of a whine actually, and should just get on with it, but right now, I feel like speaking my mind. -- [[User:MCMackers|MCMackers]]

:The anatomical differences between furry species can vary, but not so much that they become incompatible with each other. This is why I didn't want to add birds/reptiles/fish/insects. They're just too different. If they're the same species, they're exactly the same. There is a variance in hair (Some have it, some don't) otherwise everyone is firmly anthro rather than, say, animal ears and tail and nothing else. -- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 02:37, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

::I understand why there are only mammals in the setting, personally I think it's a good choice. I wasn't really thinking about the degrees of how human/animalistic people are, but rather what traits they take on when they change. For example, I know that people have commented on changes in sounds and smells, but not sight, is sight affected? -- [[User:MCMackers|MCMackers]]

:::About the sight, in one [[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]]´s story, a morph rat can see the shape and size of objects & dodge them while running, (only with the light of the stars in a moonless night); other humans in the same place need to use flashlights. The same caracter can see colors, read or driving a car like any other human in normal light conditions.
:::Other changed caracter had problems related to perception of deep & 3D; the benefit of a more wide angle of vision it´s not something really useful in the for-human-designed world. --[[User:Argamis|Argamis]] 13:29, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

::And, as for traits, I know that most species of rodents are incapable of vomiting, fox example. But would the humans be affected by this? Of course, I'm not asking for all the details, that would be ridiculous considering the number of possibilities. I just don't want to write something that doesn't follow the rules of the setting. -- [[User:MCMackers|MCMackers]]

:::Actually... Things like that are, IMHO, why the 'Sleeping Sickness' bracelets have been issued. -- [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] 08:10, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

::::Um, yes, those. Maybe I haven't been reading the right stories, but to the best of my knowledge, the bracelets are to let doctors know (provided they already know about the whole thing) what you changed into. Have I missed something? (I feel like I'm asking too many questions. Sorry.) -- [[User:MCMackers|MCMackers]]

:::::There is a mention in one of a changed that was a species to which aspirin is toxic being killed by a doctor prescribing aspirin... I just don't remember which story that was. The stories about Doctor Clay have most of the good information about how changed can suffer from problems/illnesses incumbent to their species. (IIRC there is a judge that starts suffering from a problem only seen in horses - and he's a horse...) -- [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] 08:43, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

::::::The idea behind the "Sleeping Sickness" bracelets was pretty much a (bad) attempt by a small group at the CDC to get help to Changed. Hospitals were supposed to report such cases that presented in order for doctors in the know to be summoned. It was created essentally with the idea that it wasn't really a workable solution, but the best that could be come up with. The factoid that came up about toxic medications was based on a factoid I heard many years ago, that penicillian has a singular toxicity for rodents. As such, as drug testing is set up today, its unlikely it would ever be approved. The idea is that there is enough transformation that people might pick up certiain toxic reactions to things that they didn't realize. I'm not sure anyone has really gone into depth with this, but I'd think you could infer that some canines would have violent reactions to chocolate, for example. Like all things, there would be some variability, just like some dogs can seem to eat chocolate fine while others it might kill. -- [[User:Eirik|Eirik]] 23:52, 23 November 2009 (UTC)

== Extreame ROB ==

I had an odd thought last night about the implications of what ROB does with respect to rewriting documentation of peoples pasts. ROB has been known to change paperwork, pictures and even apparent histories of people. (Didn't someone in After Hours discover they were supposed to have dated people earlier as the opposite gender?) That got me to thinking about how far this might all go. Assuming that ROB doesn't actually start to mess with memories, will it start to alter older records? Pictures from earlier than the first Change, even for subjects that died before it all started? Paintings? And would they be consistent? Would every painting done of George Washington find the same form? And to take it a few steps further, what about statues? This could get messy... which isn't always a bad thing from a story perspective. -- [[User:Eirik|Eirik]] 15:20, 2 December 2009 (UTC)

:I can see that happening more as a result of the furry virus, since that kind of extreme "history editing" feels more malevolent to me than something ROB would do. -- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 20:42, 2 December 2009 (UTC)

::Interesting though that would be, it's an important plot mechanic for there to still be remnants of the human world - Once the entire human race has transformed, they need to still be aware that this has happened - Rewriting history would remove this and it would be as if nothing happened... if you see what I mean? -- [[User:MCMackers|MCMackers]]

::It would make sense for things to get messy if it were the virus causing it. Sloppy, half rewritten pasts, people not sure of what really happened and what didn't, more like a temporal infection than a careful rewriting. That kind of scare could lead the reader to be a bit more sympathetic about ROB trying to stop the virus's progression. It would also make a great opportunity to go all Serial Experiments Lain on a story and leave people wondering wtf -- [[User:Pandora|Tasci]] 09:10, 2 May 2010 (UTC)

== Furry Sizes ==

What size are furries? It's pretty clear that bears are big and mice are small, and it mostly makes sense to have the same thing (but not as extreme) for anthroid furries, but there are some other size differences I can't so easily imagine. Some guidelines might be helpful. Ferrets in particular, ferret males are often twice as big as ferret females, as is the case of many mustelids, but at the same time both of them are smaller than cats. If I make a female ferret larger than a rat, and a male ferret smaller than a cat, that's starting to leave not so much room to spare. If I had to finagle a scale I'd say

* mice - 1.2 meters (or less!)
* rats - 1.3 meters
* female ferrets, squirrels, minks, etc - 1.4 meters
* male ferrets, ringtails, mongooses - 1.6 meters
* female cats - 1.7 meters
* male cats, skunks, raccoons - 1.8 meters uh...
* big cats and wolves - 1.9-2.0
* big stuff like bears - all the way to 2.2.

But then again it might also be fun to have a 2 metres tall cavy. GEORGE LOVES YOU COME GIVE GEORGE A BIG HUG.

Maybe illustrating size differences between sexes is a bit too piccaunish. >.<
-- [[User:Pandora|Tasci]] 09:04, 2 May 2010 (UTC)

:I should personally think that irrelevant. While there's clearly going to be some destinction between heights and races, I think guidelines are unnesecary. People come in all shapes and sizes, this individuallity should be maintained. -- [[User:MCMackers|MCMackers]]

One little detail though, (and it doesn't really apply to me but may for others), removing hippo's, rhino's and elephants from the pool seems to be a bit speciest, considering moose are allowed. In looking at the Wiki, it seems that hippos (1.5meters) and rhinos (2.0 meters) are actually generally smaller or the same size as the largest moose (2.1 metres) species. Elephants seem to average about a meter or two larger than the moose.

Perhaps a better restriction would be to allow any land mammal (and any sea mammal that is between the sizes of the minimum land mammal size and the maximum land mammal size), but set minimum and maximum furre sizes; something like a min of 1.2 metres or 4ft to a max of 2.0 metres or 7ft.

Anyways, I'll try and keep an eye on things and see if I can culture this idea I've got further. - 19:50, 10 January 2008 [[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]]

== Human Survival ==

Since the US government, and governments of the world, would have obviously known about the furry changes for many years as government officials became Changed, they logically would have set up Projects (like the Manhattan Project) to study the reasons and try and find a solution. It is obvious to them that the end of humanity will come and this should have all contries of the world enganged in studying the scientific causes of the RDF and ways to affect it. Many of the scientists themselves who get changed would surely want to study the effect. Any physics professor changed would jump at the chance to study it and get the next Nobel prize for figuring it out. It does defy natural laws, therefore the new laws it does follow can be studied. If there is some master computer responsible for the universe, such as in Jack Chalker's "Well of Souls" books, then this it might be possible for a "super computer" build by the UN or whoever to communicate with the ROB virus program or even the Master computer itself, and change it, such as the computer "Obie" in the Well World books. Personally, I favor a different approach. In 1987 a super computer someplace near Chicago DID develop self awareness, predicted that mankind was going to overpopulate and destroy the planet, and it decided to "FIX" things by connecting with the main universal computer at the center of the universe on a night when the least number of galaxies are in the way, which happens to be Aug 17. The governments at some point would find out that the birth rate is on a serious decline even though it is possible for furries to have babies, it is not as common as humans due to all the different genetics and species involved. Mating a horse furry with a rabbit furry is much less likly to produce offspring, for example, that mating a horse furry with another horse furry, so regardless of who was married to who when they are human, statistically the couple won't be able to have children after both change, unless they are the same. Some story about finding the ROB computer near Chicago before 2020 should be a possibility and reasoning with it might be a good solution.
-- [[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]] 02:37, 6 July 2010 (UTC)

:The thing is, there is no ROB computer in our world, if I'm understanding what you're saying here. It isn't like Obie or the Well World where it's something inside the Universe itself that's causing the Change. This setting--basically our world--exists as a Planck-level simulation space inside a post-Singularity posthuman computer. There are two viruses (also posthuman, slightly more advanced) responsible for the Change: A relatively controllable TG virus, and the much newer "furry virus" that ROB can't contain with "history editing".
Keep in mind that governments didn't really know this was even happening until the early 2000s.
Otherwise, the RDF/Change as a source of study for physicists is a good angle.
-- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 18:57, 6 July 2010 (UTC)

::I just hate to plug but if you want an example of how goverments might screw up the change read my story [[User:Fibio|Cascade Failure]]
-- [[User:Fibio|Fibio]] 20:42, 6 July 2010 (UTC)

::Of course, in a way it's kind of pointless even to know about it, since I can't really foresee any way that it could ever become a plot point within the story itself. I can't really see humanity figuring out how to "hack" its way out.
It doesn't really make that much of a difference, from an in-universe standpoint, to assume that it's all being done by "magic". (Any sufficiently advanced technology…) —- [[User:Robotech Master|Robotech Master]] 21:23, 6 July 2010 (UTC)

:::Pretty much [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RealityWarper] all around. :) -- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 22:27, 6 July 2010 (UTC)

Wow, thanks folks for all the replies to my post! People to talk to! OK, first JonBuck, I am not really sure I understand all the Plank-level simulation space inside a post-singularity posthuman supercomputer stuff (I did try to look up the story Accelerando but I just found a book cover) but I interpret this to mean: Plank-Level = really really small; simulation space = not real or temporary space in computer memory; post-singularity = after a black hole evaporates in about a few trillion years; post human = mankind extinct; supercomputer = something like the Cosmic AC in [http://www.multivax.com/last_question.html] ?

However, my ignorance aside, regardless of what the supercomputer is, or what we are, it would in effect be God. Now ROB could represent the devil, or if God has gone crazy, the savior. ROB either was created by the supercomputer "GOD" on purpose or by accident, it was created by a simulation universe, either our own, a past one, or another running concurrently, to infect God, or it was created by God's creators as some part of the God computer for some purpose and function, and if that is the case then either it is carrying out its intended program or it has malfunctioned. I think that is a complete list of all possible options, so if I have missed one then please let me know.

You stated, "It comes from outside the post-Singularity brain, and is slightly more advanced than "ours". What's happening is this bit of malicious code (sentient, no less, but on a level far beyond our ability to comprehend it) is messing up the simulated world we reside in. Why? I dunno. One of those inscrutable things." This sentient "virus" needs to have come from one of the posibilities above, and I suppose it is up to you to decide which, but since "you dunno", then I will try to help.

I guess the first question is "Why did God create the universe?" which translated means "Why is the supercomputer running the simulation?" Is the goal good or evil? Perhaps the supercomputer was programed to do so for an evil purpose by its creators, and ROB is sort of like its concience it has developed and wants to mess up the experiment before it can produce evil results. I would favor ROB being good, instead of evil, perhaps trying to produce a different result that will end up doing good than if the simulation ran to completion on its present course. However, that being said, if ROB is a computer virus, and based on logic and programable, and is expending energy to maintain the RDF, scientists studying that might find a way to..either communicate with it, grab its attention, or annoy it. I believe that enabeling some communication with it, even though we won't understand it completly, would produce some interesting stories.

Fibeo, I had previously read your story and just re-read it. By the way it is fine to plug :) When I read it the first time I thought that it really did not fit in with the rest of the stories since it involved time travel. In the context of a simulation, that would mean more than one running at one time, all on different timelines, and being able to hop between them. Maybe ROB is trans-simulation and could have helped this, but I really don't see how anyone in a simulation could get the supercomputer running it to re-set it to a prior time point and insert someone from a future point. It was an interesting story however and I did enjoy reading it.

Robotech, "magic" is a nice simple explanation to explain the unexplainable, but mankind strives for answers, it seeks to understand, and predict and ultimately control those things it can not immediately explain. Faced with an unexplainable force that is threatening mankind itself with extintion, mankind will use all resourses at its disposal, spare no espence, bring the greatest scientific minds, changed and unchanged to work on studying and solving the problem. It may be futile, we may never be able to win against the Gods, but it is the nature of mankind to TRY! You mentioned it is unlikly manking could "hack" its way out. That would be one possibility, since mathematics would likly be the same for both us and the supercomputer and ROB which are both based on mathmatics and logic. however, there are possibities for stories regarding that attempt..and could be very interesting. If I was a writer, I might even try writing one, but who knows...I might anyways.

Back to JonBuck. The link was to an article about people thinking something and it becoming real. Much too powerful, sort of like...writers!
-- [[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]] 00:39, 7 July 2010 (UTC)

:Okay. I'm going to clarify some concepts here.
:The Singularity I'm referring to is the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity Technological_singularity] . Nothing to do with gravity. A [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posthuman further entry on posthumanism] , and its close relation, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhumanist Transhumanist]. By Planck-level I mean, basically, the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planck_units smallest length in the universe] . Everything down to those levels is "simulated".
:Moving on, the kind of questions you bring up I actually don't want to deal with. The reason I'm using the ROB acronym in the first place is to avoid overtly religious connotations. I realize that they're very important, but it's otherwise such a contentious issue in the real world. I really don't want to see any "communicating with ROB" stories.
:Post-Singularity intelligences are by nature inscrutable (I've seen Stross refer to them as "Weakly Godlike Entities" in his books). At this point ROB has switched to a "salvage mode" by making direct changes to the "simulation" in the form of alleviating energy crises (a huge concern of mine at the time I wrote most of my stories in this setting) and climate change.
:''Accelerando'' is actually [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerando_%28book%29 available for free].
: -- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 02:27, 7 July 2010 (UTC)

::Thanks for the reply Jonbuck, the links were very helpful and I have a clearer idea what you are talking about now. It is going to take me a while to read all the stories.
::I used religious words to describe ideas simply that are familiar but did not mean in any way to be controversial.
::I will try over the next few weeks to put together a short story within your constraints, and if it exceeds your limits we can just change it. I plan to make one assumption, and that is that a simulation is defined by rules set for it that need to be obeyed for it to continue running. ROB changing the speed of light in the simulation for example would be such a fundamental change in everything that it would break the entire simulation, i.e. crash the program. ROB can only work within the rules set for the simulation, agreed?
:: -- [[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]] 02:12, 8 July 2010 (UTC)

:::Major changes in underlying physical constants would probably be ill advised, even for ROB. :) At this point the simulation is being salvaged to prevent social chaos, death, and extinction of the people inside it.
:::There's a novel out that has some very similar ideas and influenced a lot of how I set up this setting: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwinia_%28novel%29 ''Darwinia'' by Robert Wilson] .
::: -- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 02:22, 8 July 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the reply JonBuck, I can work with that, and will post something in a few weeks for your feedback.
-- [[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]] 00:45, 9 July 2010 (UTC)

== About ('''2004''') '''''Victory Starts Here''''' ==

OK, JonBuck, I lied and posted the story in just 2 days. I could not stop thinking about it. I got as far as I could. Could you please read it and then tell me the results of each of the experiments before I can continue in the next one? Thanks!
[[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]] 00:17, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

:After the "server crash" of 2011; the original story [[User:Enphilistor|Victory Starts Here]] (by [[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]] ) is now avalaible (in a very crude, text only format) in the Talk Page of it´s creator: [[User_talk:Enphilistor| Victory Starts Here]]
: -- [[User:Argamis|Argamis]] 13:00, 31 January 2011 (UTC)

Well, I think I will just have to decide for myself how the experiments turn out and just hope you approve. One of my goals in the stories I plan to write is to explain "scientifically" all the effects you have going on here are consistent with all universal laws. If you are running a program, you can't change the code of the program while it is running. You can change the code but only by stoping the program from running and recompiling it. So anything ROB is doing has to be done inside the simulation following the rules of the simulation (under the premise of the stories I plan to write). It is really not going to be easy for the scientists(i.e. me) to explain the changes to the past records, or why they start off only being change a few years back, then all the way back to the day someone was born, and undoing history such as marriages. And remember, I can't have ROB using "magic", ROB is in the simulation and has to be constrained to its rules. Because of this constraint, ROB needs a "body" someplace and a supply of "energy" from somewhere, to direct and power all these changes. I hope you enjoy my next story, that should be entiteld something like "Victory Continues", where Paul has to cope with being a female pig, and the scientists recieve some confusing results on the origin of the signals they record.
-- [[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]] 22:27, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

:Not really. If ROB is outside of the simulation, there's nothing to stop it from pausing the simulation and reworking the fabric of it as necessary. It's like pausing the Sims and placing new walls or whatever. As far as the Sim-people are concerned, those walls might as well as have always been there, even if we (the players) know better. ROB is not inside the simulation, ROB is the player(s) outside the simulation. In no sense does ROB need to obey any rules within the simulation, nor does it need act within the laws of the simulation to change the simulation. By definition anything ROB does is going to be 'magic' because turning people into furries, or editing history, isn't something that's allowed within physical laws. Most of the transformations directly violate the law of the conservation of mass and energy, for example.
:I don't mean to rain on your parade, and I'm clearly not Mr Buck (who might disagree with my explanation), but it seems like you're not quite getting the setting, as I understand it. Hope that helps.
: -- [[User:Honeymane|Honeymane]] 07:52, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

::Got it in one, Honeymane. -- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 18:30, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

JonBuck said, Major changes in underlying physical constants would probably be ill advised, even for ROB. :)

In addition, since ROB hates paradoxes, and will go to such extremes as making sure each child will have both a biological father and a mother and never 2 fathers or 2 mothers, following the rule of conservation in energy and mass is necessary to avoid such paradoxes on an even more fundamental level and in any case easily achieved. If you read my story, that exact experiment has been set up to measure this. Since it is so easy to maintain mass and energy balance, which you will see in the next story, there is no reason to violate this universal law. Imagine the effect on the simulation if you try to break this rule either while it is running or "pausing" it. A calculation is in the process of being made on an object between it and every other object in the universe. In the middle of the calculation a zero is entered (E = mC^2, so if you are going to, C is either zero, which crashes the program and is not what JonBuck said, or as m goes to zero, then c goes to infinity which also changes the velocity of light constant which JobBuck said would not happen). Some calculations have already been performed and other calculations in progress have end up with a divisor of zero. You crash the program when you restart it, as the zero divisor propagates in all the calculations throughout the universe.

In any case, mankind will try and study these effects, and my stories will be mostly concerned with these attempts. However, when I say all laws have to be obeyed, that does not mean all laws that humans know about, it can include new ones. It may be that the results of the experiments will lead them to conclude that something is breaking the laws of the universe because they don't understand them all, but ROB will know what it is doing. I imagine it like this. The main computer can't use its antiviral programming to stop ROB as long as ROB is hiding in the simulation and following the rules in the simulation, but if ROB breaks the rules, and crashes it, he becomes exposed with no place to hide and gets zaped. You will see that in the next story, that ROB is still just as powerful to the same "magic" as it can is now, and still be consistent with all stories that have happened, and the setting JonBuck has set up. JonBuck has not really explained the interaction between the main computer and the virus or any protections or why they are not working. In any case, it doesn't matter what i think, since the stories I plan don't mention this at all, they will be consistent with either ROB being inside or outside the simulation, only what the beings in the simulation measure is in the stories. Just trust me, the story will be interesting and fun, and if JonBuck says no to some result after he reads it, I will change it. Fair?
-- [[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]] 01:54, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

:I haven't had time to read your story yet. Frankly, reading your comments here I'm getting a little antsy over what exactly the impact it would have on the overall setting. I think you're over-analyzing the setting, frankly. You're asking questions about it that I really can't answer.
:Also, use colons in front of your paragraphs to make them indent and create a "nested" topic. And put a blank line between paragraphs. Thanks.
: -- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 02:21, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

::For JonBuck I had intentionally not been using indents so that my comments would be totally left justified and everyone the replies for everyone else indented, make it easier in my view to keep things organized. But if you prefer indents, I am easy.
::I had assumed that you had already read the story. It would be good for me to get some feedback on that since none of the things we discuss here are really in it, but may impact it.
:: -- [[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]] 02:57, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

:I think you're confusing the 'players' here. First, there's the computer that all the "real" characters (ie the characters in the story) exist in. ROB 1 is likely someone running the computer, perhaps for anthropological reason, perhaps because they're bored. ROB 2 is unrelated to ROB 1, but for one reason or another, has managed to add a virus program to ROB 1's simulation, causing problems. There are at least 2 viruses that JonBuck has discussed; one that changes gender, and one that changes people into furries, we could, however, imagine that there may have been other viruses in the past, that eventually ROB 1 removed. For example, Atlantis might have been real, and so might have the Greek/etc gods. Atlantians were gifted technology beyond what they should have, and ROB 1 deleted the island to save the program, ROB might have also deleted the Gods, for whatever reason, etc. I'm just speculating here. Now, either ROB can't remove the virus like it did the other problems, or it realized that altering reality was screwing with the program's purpose (such as anthropological study) So rather than delete the TG or TF viruses, ROB 1 created a program to try and mitigate the virus's effects. This program is what causes the history editing (etc).
:Both these viruses exist within the programing of the Computer, but not on a level that would appear to anyone in the program. It's important to remember that time doesn't necessarily pass like it does within the computer; the virus could get it's work done in a nanosecond. Everything else, the sickness, the slow change, all these might be part of the mitigation program's efforts to prevent anyone from changing in public, and to change so suddenly they lose their minds, nor without warning. But there's no reason to think that this computer virus is operating through something like an actual virus, or that the changes are visible on a cell level before the change occurs, even in those showing the signs of the change.
:But again, this is just me talking, not Buck. But I do strongly suggest you hold off writing too much more until Jon has a chance to review your story, or else you might very well find yourself writing something based on ideas that JonBuck doesn't like/want in his setting.
: -- [[User:Honeymane|Honeymane]] 04:24, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

:: For Honeymane It is really difficult to hit a moving target. I have not seen in any of the stories and discussions or JonBuck's guidlines about prior activity of ROB. As for ROB1, ROB2, ....ROBN, only one master computer has been mentioned and only one ROB virus. In my understanding, the main comupter has created a SIMULATION. The main computer is infected with a much smaller and more limited "few lines of code" virus, that the beings on one planet in the SIMULATION call the random omnipotent being, but this being is only omnipotent comparted to us, not compared to the main computer. I do not see ROB having the same power to shut down the simulation, pause it, change the rules in it or perform any of the jobs the main computer does.
:: -- [[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]] 04:24, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

:I see ROB as much more limited. It needs to avoid detection of the antiviral programs, it can't attract their attention, it needs to work by stealth, it is a virus after all, it can't do things that say, "here I am!". And this all follows from things JonBuck has indicated. If he wants to say ROB = main computer in all powers, then well, fine, but he has not done so. He has not defined the motives of ROB or the main computer. when asked, he has said, " I dunno". Given that void, since I need to write in that setting, I find myself creating possible motives for them in my mind.
:It makes no difference to the stories I plan to write, but it helps me limiting ROB to viral powers and behaviors, not mainfraim abilities. A virus has 2 main goals, to keep itself alive and to reproduce itself. ROB may or may not have the second goal, but it will have the first. While doing this in any enviornment, it may cause side effects. Imagine ROB as a biological virus, and a living cell as the simulation that is growing inside a body that is the mainframe. At one time ROB was outside the cell, in the body (mainframe) where lots of antibodies (antiviral programs) were hunting for it. By entering the cell, it is now hidden from the body's defenses. However, if the cell gets sick or dies(ROB crashes the cell simulation) before ROB has either left the cell or reached a state of reproduction where that is desireable, then the body will just devower the cell and grow a new one. So in my scenario, perhaps ROB realized that the purpose of the simulation was about to be achieved, and since ROB is not ready to reproduce, it is messing with the simulation, hyjacking it as a virus hyjacks the DNA of a Cell, to keep the simulation alive longer than it would otherwise, so that it won't reach the conditions for termination, until it can make other copies of itself to infect other simulations. Who knows, maybe with enough copies of itself it can take over the mainfraim. Alternatively, its work at transforming mankind may be the way it is going about reproducing. Alternatively, ROB might have realized the simulation was about to produce a failed reslut which would have terminated the simulation and it is acting to keep itself alive by preventing failure conditions.
:In any case it makes no difference to the stories I plan to write, JonBuck had declined to actually be clear on this, and it really does not matter. The beings in the simulations don't know this, and it is difficult to think of any way they could ever find out. Well actually I could, because I am like that. One way would be if ROB tells them, and since Jonbuck said no comunication with ROB, that won't happen. Another if the mainfram sends a COR (Correcting Omnipotent Being) into the simulation (...and God sent his only begotten son...that type of idea) and told people.
:The second story is half done, and I plan to continue writing it since I have it all layed out in my mind. Hopefully Jonbuck will read the first story and give some feedback before I finish, but I believe he will approve of both stories in any case. And if not, I will change them.
: -- [[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]] 04:24, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

:: *puts on peacemaker and teacher hats*
:: From what I can tell you're looking for an explicit statement of something that has been implicit in the setting design since the start...
:: Where the Solar System once sat is now a cloud of what you could call "Computronium". Inside this computer are many, many simulations. Whether these simulations are the creation of a separate physical being or the uploaded minds of people is a moot point - we'll never see the "real world". (btw, ROB could actually be an AI that was once a person...)
:: The stories all take place inside one of these simulations that has picked up a couple of viruses somewhere. One of them has been around since at least the late 70's (IIRC, this is mentioned in one of Jon's stories) and the other didn't appear until 1987. The one that showed up in 1987 - the "furry virus" - is newer and initially ROB had tried to contain it using the "Perception Filter". When it somewhat "merged" with the TG virus the simulation got a lot more unstable and ROB had to start including things in its "containment" to help combat that instability. That is the "history revision" stuff. It also is the cause of the changes to married couples with children - because it was seeing potential causes of instability (no more mother/father) and fixing it as it could.
:: There is no "ROB" actually in the simulation - think about the game "The SIMS"... In that game you are the ROB - the creator and maintainer of the simulation. And you can "Pause" the simulation, make changes and restart it. In this case at least the entirety of the solar system is part of the simulation and every time ROB has to make a change it "pauses" the simulation, makes the changes and then hits the "normal speed" button. Now... there might be some people in the world that are actually from outside the sim, but they'd never make themselves known - and they could, probably, act like the ROB and remove any evidence of themselves (outside of memories) from the sim.
:: -- [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] 04:21, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

::: I think a lot of the problems here is a misunderstanding of the source material I'm drawing inspiration for this setting from. Honeymane and ShadowWolf have both described things well. (Though I'm going to bump the TG virus back a few more centuries). A few points.
:::: * ROB exists outside the simulation. Other ROBs are not important. The Virus is not a ROB. However, ROB isn't really a physical being either, as SW describes.
:::: * The Virus originates outside the simulation. Who and what originally made it is a moot point.
:::: * The intent of said "virus" (the term only fits loosely) is to throw a monkeywrench into ROB's simulation of our universe. The reason why it hasn't been contained is that it was created by a slightly more advanced post-Singularity Mind than ROB. Since ROB can't contain it, ROB can only mitigate.
:::: * Essentially, the two virii are intended to cause social chaos via random transformations. It doesn't exist to propagate itself to other simulations. In the first case, a "quarantine" of sorts was created via modifying the present records of those TGed to reflect their new gender. If it was true history editing neither the person transformed nor the people who knew them would remember what they'd been. What ROB is changing are just the present physical objects.
:::Honestly, go read Part 2 of Accelerando. It was originally started as short stories, so you can pick it up there. That's where a lot of the concepts for Paradise started.
::: -- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 05:13, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

OK, it seems terminology is messing me up. I was under the apparently mistaken belief that ROB was the virus, and the Mainfraim running the simulation(s). I believed this because the virus was random and chainging someone to a furry is sort of mildy omnipotent. Yes, I fully agree that if ROB = Mainfraim(or AI who might have once been human) then ROB must definatly outside the simulation. My comments were consering only the virus(es) that are causing the transgender/furry transformations.
Let me call the form that can do either one or the other or both, the Random Omnipotent Virus, ROV for short so there will be no misunderstandings. I can see ROB stoping the simulation and making corections, eliminating divisions by zero and all that. However, ROV should not have those abilities, being just a lowly virus, compared to ROB. The stories I wish to write constrain ROV to using the same old laws that existed in 1987, and prior to that if there was the TG virus. The universe we live in now was supposed to be identical to that one until 1987, I would like that ROV should be handicaped a little by the rules ROB created for the simulation. A simulation is to test SOMETHING, and if you start changing the rules (ie laws of nature) your results are just not going to simulate the conditions you wanted to in the real world, where you don't have the power to change the laws of nature.
The experiments the humans are setting up in my first story will indicate only the effects being caused by ROV. If ROV is outside or inside the simulation does not really matter, but if ROV can behave just like ROB, then that study is just not going to produce anything interesting either scientifically, or plot wise. Such violations of the laws of nature might just scream at them "There really must be a god involved." and we never want them to know or suspect ROB or the true nature of ROV. To have a scientific study, I would like ROV to follow the laws of the universe, for any of the reasons described here and in prior posts. I will work out some reasons that make sense to the humans for all things happening regarding the transformations, to keep them studying and not just throw up their hands in frustration, if that is ok.
-- [[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]]

== Count of Changed in 1997 ==

Hello! I'm new here, but I really like this setting and read probably most of the stories. I even made my own table in Excel to draw the changing numbers as a graphic (Also for my hometown to get a grip on the numbers). And there I noticed something:

Maybe I just missed a story or paragraph where it is explained, but shouldn't there be 1024 Changed in 1997 instead of 1028? Where do the additional 4 Furries come from? I know this is just minor, but the error is kept through the following years till the end and all the numbers are wrong (It doesn't however change the fact that 2020 is the last year).

It's not so important, but it's been bugging me since I noticed it. -- [[User:TigeR|TigeR]] 15:53, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

:Check out the [[Paradise (Setting)]] page. It has all the numbers. -- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 02:16, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

:: Jon, you do have a +4 in 1997 over a strict doubling. This is what he was pointing out and asking questions about. -- [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] 02:18, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

::: And fixed! -- [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] 02:37, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

::: This error went a heck of a lot deeper and its possible that the skew-factor introduced in 1997 effected the percentages as time went into the future - however... I fixed this by hand and then verified the figures against a program that output every power of two from zero to the 33rd. As it stands this table now has correct figures for the furry population and one can only assume that the historical figures for population are correct and the projection fits the curve correctly. -- [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] 02:55, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

== Paradise:The Soundtrack ==

Not sure about anyone else, but I find music to be a major inspiration.. Well of course it

is... the song "Strangers by Yoko Kanno" got this series off the ground did it not?

So I decided to put together a soundtrack, it's not available for download because I own

none of these songs... But if you happen to have them, you can arrange them in your iPod

Playlist, if you want.. I mean I'm not forcing ya, it's just a possibility.

: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0b58V573l8 '''Yoko Kanno''' - Strangers -_Wolf's Rain - Strangers by Sori Smile-_ ] <- { The begining of ALL of this... }

: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IroHea5FOj8 '''Bliss 66''' - Not Quite Paradise ] <- {''This song pretty much hits the entire series on the head... (It's from the ending of [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb2aMjprmdo Titan A.E.], damn good movie, do see it sometime)''}

:[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqds0B_meys '''Three Days Grace''' - Animal I Have Become]

:[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-scESgTnoUM '''Goo Goo Dolls''' - Iris]

: '''Mighty Bosstones''' - Impression That I Get

: '''Lee Brotherton''' - Dream Of An Asbolution

: '''Cash Cash''' - Speak With Your Heart

: '''Eminem''' - Beautiful

: '''Shania Twain''' - Man I Feel Like A Woman

: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE9zpOyNDoA '''Chip Tha Ripper''' - SLAB Freestyle -_What Are You Inside? - Furries In A Blender_- ] <- { ''Joke YouTube Entry'' }

: '''Tears For Fears''' - Everybody Wants To Rule The World

: '''Foo Fighters''' - The Pretender

and finally:

: '''John Mayer''' - Waiting On The World To Change

: %'''Crush 40'''% - %Is It You?% -_%http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFyPlBkqXR0%-_ <- {%''Is it you? Is it me? Is it everything we're meant to be? Is it here? Is it now? That only we can feel somehow''%}
I think I forgot some, but yeah, definitely these. - [[User:Hawl|Hawl]] (1/10/11, 1:55 PM)

: The new ''metadata format'' for the songlist is: %'''Artist'''% - %Songtitle% -_%YTtitle%-_ <- {%''comment''%}

::[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8IujL8_sMI '''Stanfour''' - For All Lovers] <- { ''My Favorite ; "...For all the Changeds, and Believers..."'' }

::[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4w3lPYoBX8 '''Stanfour''' - Everything Has Changed]

::[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mjlM_RnsVE '''Skillet''' - Monster]

::[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-makfpBrSQ '''Three Days Grace''' - Never too late]

: -- [[User:Argamis|Argamis]] 13:50, 03 February 2011 (UTC)

::"It's the new mother nature taking over
::It's the new splendid lady come to call
::It's the new mother nature taking over
::She's getting us all
::She's getting us all"
::—[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJbFVJvRqOQ '''The Guess Who'''] - No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature

::And then there's [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sgycukafqQ '''Linkin Park'' - What I've Done] from my Melton's Eleven stories…

::—[[User:Robotech Master|Robotech Master]] 06:51, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

== I Need a Date ==

Not that kind... I'd like the exact date of Tall Tales. Or maybe even a compilation of important events and when they happened. I don't mean the year, but the actual days. I hate sounding important like this, so please just try to roll with this and help. The important thing for me was Tall Tales. When did the convention take place? I've looked through this page, the story, and several related stories, but it never really mentioned a date, so if somebody knows, and they could get back to me on this, that would be great. Thanks. [[User:Atapari|Atapari]] 01:04, 28 February 2011 (UTC)

:If I was going to pin down an actual ''date'', I'd put it at Veteran's Day weekend. A lot of cons take place over a long weekend. As for the exact sequence of events, I'll have to reread the story. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 02:25, 28 February 2011 (UTC)

:It's actually a little hard to pin down the date. As I pointed out in the "Continuity Snarl" entry on [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Paradise the Paradise TVTropes page], it's strongly implied to take place in October (a character in Jetfire's "Clearing the Air" complains about its effects in a scene set on October 22nd, which is presumably a week or so after the con so those effects have had time to be felt), but Nikon's "Changing Perspectives" (which takes place concurrently with "Tall Tales") says it's set in November. Of course, neither of those people are JonBuck, who wrote the original story and gatekeeps the continuity, but neither of them is necessarily more valid than the other—though if we go by what Jon says above, Veteran's Day is in November. —[[User:Robotech Master|Robotech Master]] 03:07, 28 February 2011 (UTC)

Thanks a bunch, both of you. This'll help me finish my story. (By the way, I love all your stories. My own are sort of pathetic, but I aspire to be as good a writer as you.) [wow, that was corny.][[User:Atapari|Atapari]] 23:41, 28 February 2011 (UTC)

It's not too corny, Atapari, MatthiasRat is like my personal hero... Of course so is Robert Hallman, but for completely different reasons. Btw, if you're reading this Matty. Then you've earned this bad Sonata Artica/Winds Of Change reference. Diiiiiiiiiiiid you ever knooooow that you're my hero! And everything I would like to beeeeee. Cause you are the wiiiiiind beneath my wiiiiiiiiiiiings! See it's funny cause he inspired me with a TF story and I called him the wind beneath my wings... And... there's that other series... and... yeah I'll just shut up now. [[User:Hawl|Hawl]] 7:40, 3/5/2011 (UTC)

Update: I can say for sure that it was in October. I can't believe I missed this before: "Most of the furs were like Jerome and his girlfriend, only having changed two months ago."[[User:Atapari|Atapari]] 04:13, 1 March 2011 (UTC)

== Fanart Of The Changed ==

I just comissioned, as far as I know, the first ever Paradise Fanart. The art is Pokemon themed (Cause Pokemon Black's release is just around the corner), but the picture is of Iris (formely Cale) and Gabriel, the characters from my upcoming story. I'm writing a story to go along with the picture. Will post a link to it as soon as its done. The non-fan service story about them is almost finished. Just needs a few more paragraphs and revisions. It's part 1 in a series. This is exciting for me, I've never actually finished a story before... Well outside of one Paradise story I wrote a few months ago and never posted.... But I never submitted that to anywhere outside of furaffinity cause I was personally ashamed of it. Once again I'd like to give a shoutout to... whoever the real life Robert Hallman is, Charles Matthias, and Jon Buck for encouraging me to return to story writing and the furry fandom. (If you wanna read what I have so far of what I wrote, just type "Weird Girly Boy" in the search engine) - [[User:Hawl|Hawl]], 08:00, 3/5/2011, (UTC)

The Art's done, the story is awaiting an ending. Due to the Pokemon Crossover Nature, this story is incredibly non-cannon (Think Cascade Failure or The Future Is Paradise) and as a result never happened. These characters are from an upcoming series called "Paradisian Perspectives" which is a Paradise Mini-Series. The one in the front is "Gabriel Locke" and the one in the back is "Iris Vinole", though she was born "Cale Vinole" (TG'd)
I'll add them to the cast page when I finish "A Normal Type Of Day". I'd like to note that Iris, like most TG-Changed does not usually wear feminine clothing (and continues not to after Tall Tales, for comfort reasons) the sundress is merely something the artist decided to add though it is referenced in the story. I would like to repeat, POKEMON DO NOT EXIST IN PARADISE! THIS STORY ISN'T CANNON!
http://undead-romance.furaffinity.net/view/5416625/ - Drawn by a close personal friend, comissioned by me. (Story coming before the weekend ends) [[User:Hawl|Hawl]], 5:53PM, 3/17/2011 (EST)

== Shed vs Cut Fur ==

One of the lines in one of [[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat's]] stories gave me an idea for one of my own. The shared content is very small (an offhand line, never again mentioned in one, a small plot point with little impact on the plot in the other) and I'm asking him for permission now, but I also want to make sure that what I am thinking of is possible in the Paradise universe. I know that shedding fur is always a problem with the Changed, but I have also seen scenes (like where [[User:Eirik|Eiric's]] Dr. Clay sends some fur—deliberately cut—to be tested, and the results indicate normal human hair. Is this something that has been established in the world, or can I have fur cut from one of my Changed appear to be animal fur to the non-Changed? Thanks! - [[User:RunsWithFurs|Runs]][[User talk:RunsWithFurs|With]][[:Category:RunsWithFurs|Furs]] 09:58, 13 March 2011 (UTC)

:I've never really nailed down the rules here, but it's reasonable to assume the RDF isn't completely consistent. It's the same way with footprints. A lot depends on context, some condition that shed fur ''needs'' to be hidden. It's really dependent on what your story requires, when it comes down to it. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 01:58, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

::Thank you for the clarification; I thought that it would be something like that. I will be using visible fur for my story, then; what I am thinking of is not strictly ''necessary'', but I do think that it will add a bit of depth to the character. - [[User:RunsWithFurs|Runs]][[User talk:RunsWithFurs|With]][[:Category:RunsWithFurs|Furs]] 05:58, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

== Question on the time period ==

I was reading through the universe rules, and noticed (again, though this is the first time I remembered to follow up) that you ask us to submit any stories that take place pre-2001 to you. I am currently intending to set my story in that time period—somewhere in the mid/late 1990's—and am wondering how you would like us to send stories to you, once I get something written. Though I could set it later, I want my characters to be rather isolated, and, while the setting lends itself well to geographic isolation, low overall numbers would also be nice. Finally, I just wanted to make sure that it was all right for me to write a Paradise story; I realized that I never actually asked. Sorry! - [[User:RunsWithFurs|Runs]][[User talk:RunsWithFurs|With]][[:Category:RunsWithFurs|Furs]] 06:06, 15 March 2011 (UTC)

:Well, nobody has to ask me if they can write a Paradise story. Just tell me what your overall plans are. You don't have to submit the whole story to me first--I tend not to get to them. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 06:46, 15 March 2011 (UTC)

::Thank you. I'll probably wait a bit longer before saying anything, as my outline is not quite finalized yet. Main points, though: the main character visits relative's farm in early August. Change strikes while still on farm; aunt revealed to have previously changed. Main character stays with relative to get used to new form (neither knows of the network). As I said, this could be placed at practically any point on the timeline, but I find it seems to "click" better earlier. I apoligize if this is not the best way to run it by you, and if it is not enough information. I would be happy to give you a more in-depth outline, through whatever method you want, once it settles. Thanks again for putting up with me! - [[User:RunsWithFurs|Runs]][[User talk:RunsWithFurs|With]][[:Category:RunsWithFurs|Furs]] 23:48, 15 March 2011 (UTC)

==Aliens?==
:Would any intelligent beings elsewhere in the universe be affected by the change eventually? Of course, the fractal thing does make it so that it would be a LOOOOONG time after the Earth changes finish... [[User:Maine Cat|Maine Cat]] 21:07, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

::The answer is yes, they would. But I don't plan on introducing any aliens into this setting for the foreseeable future. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 16:36, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

== It's The Most Transformational Time, Of The Year! ==

August 16th? How we all feeling today? I'm healthy as a horse sadly, no... not a Healthy Horse, a healthy human. *looks in his boxers* Male too....

Oh well.. *tucks a Victoria's Secret bag back into the closet*

Maybe next year :P

== The Blind and the RDF ==

So I was thinking about the change and how it would affect the disabled and such, and through the thoughts, I came to a realization... the blind may be able to naturally pierce the veil somewhat! Two factors come into this. First, a blind man is BLIND. The visual disguise of the RDF that makes a person look like they always looked has NO EFFECT, a blind person relying on touch. Second, it's generally said of the blind (and deaf) that with one sense out of comission, the other four senses become more acute and sensitive to make up for it, meaning they have more of a chance of feeling the hidden fur or claws. Now admittedly, people don't touch each other as much as they see each other unless they're shaking hands or something, but this COULD be an interesting hook for a story, don't you think?--[[User:Chessrook44|Chessrook44]] 01:18, 23 August 2011 (UTC)

Talk:Paradise (Setting)

2011-08-30T21:05:42Z

Chessrook44: /* The "Posthuman" World */

It's an interesting setting, what I've read so far, and I've got an idea or two percolating that may or may not come to fruition. A seed is trying to sprout for an idea starting in '05 and going forward. - [[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]] 19:50, 10 January 2008

---

After the 2011 crash, the setting lost the most newer storys and the enrichment data inside their related Talk_Pages.
Maybe we can get back these with this -> [http://www.archive.org/web/web.php Internet Wayback Machine] in the far-far future (when the data gets very very old, its then available there).

If the "Paradise_(Setting)" page it´s like an array that canalize the flow of "hot ideas" through it´s "insulated tube-rules" (preventing the "leaking and cooling" of the new storys in their necesary "plot-curves" and "bottlenecks-dramas"). . .
Then the "Talk:Paradise_(Setting)" page it´s like the Virtual Remote Control Panel for that powergrid. When a new "hot idea" pop up in the wrong place or it´s going the wrong direction, a colision alarm sound here!.
The "already resolved discussions" divert automatically the issue, and for the real original new ones, at last offer a series of nearby "exhaust valves" designed for the protection of the "global setting" system.
:--[[User:Argamis|Argamis]] 21:01, 3 February 2011 (UTC)

== Theory on how the Change 'spreads' ==

Been thinking about how it might spread, such that we have a higher proportion of Changed in NA, but not leaving the rest of the world out, and I think I know how.

The 'computer virus' that Changes people, uses the RDF to spread itself. Our 'program's' own protection method is also spreading the damages.

Basically, I am guessing that if the RDF needs to kick in on you, then you are passively 'infected'.

Then, when August 17th comes around, the Virus triggers itself, but it for whatever reason can only copy itself for every previously Changed person. (The Doubling effect), and it can only affect people that have been passively infected, ie people who have had the RDF kick in on them.

The goal of the virus is to spread as far as it can, so it takes the number of new Changed it can, and spreads it more or less evenly across the available (RDF-affected) population.

So the first Changed is in Chicago (I think). Through the year until the next Change, she will encounter thousands of people, even in passing, which triggers the RDF on them and passively infects them.

Come August, 1988, the next Changed will be picked randomly from those thousands of people, and now we'll have 2 people spreading the RDF virus. 1989, a big chunk of Chicago has probably had the RDF trigger at least once, not to mention some tourists and other visitors to the city.

In 89, we get 2 more Changed, and one of them could possibly be in a different random city, just because he'd been to Chicago in the past 2 years and unknowingly seen a Changed, and a new nest of RDF-field affected people starts up.

European and Asian and Oceanic outbreaks could happen in years to come as the number of tourists and business people from those reasons travel into North America and begin to be fielded and infected themselves.

The 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City probably 'infected' most of the people who were around and watching, meaning that by then (if not before) pretty much anyone has a chance to be Changed.

It also means that truly isolated areas of the world (South Pacific islands, isolated Amazonian tribes, etc) could potentially be unchanged after the 2020 deadline; but any encounter at all with a Changed would likely Change them immediately and spread like wildfire through the village)

And while the RDF may 'fail' at some point, it'll probably still be around in a less effective form, trying to maintain some stability and spreading the Change. --[[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]]
:I'll give that some thought. It's somewhat similar to something I already had in mind. Perhaps those who have the RDF fail completely will be much more likely to change the next year, or they might even change out-of-phase. In any case, once they figure out that it's like a communicable disease, and everyone is already 'infected', the remaining humans will go nuts. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 12:35, 27 January 2008 (EST)

The spread and the exact reason for the "double" number each year, is as if the virus had only one chance per year to run it´s replication part code. (And someone sugest the use of "infected flags" for the furry virus to later identify the already changed).

The fractal-but-random nature of the spread means the Virus need the furrys alive for it´s reproduction, but not proximity at all (probably because the "computronium cloud" it´s an 11-dimension construct); so when the change secuence start, it´s because a "superior computational request" (diferent from the virus itself) has the need to do something to all the humans in the world, but not something that change all of them in a masive, blind generic "*.*" way.

If the detection of a emergent post-human-like inteligence is the reason of the "simulation", then it´s logical for the "server" to execute some "checking subrutine" regulary (once per year) on the most inteligent elements; stoping the propagation of uber-mutated-code things that come from outside the simulation.
If the server detects something "wrong" in a human, then It will try to correct any mistakes wihout killing him/her. --[[User:Argamis|Argamis]] 00:54, 4 February 2011 (UTC)

I had my theory of how it works the spread:
Every time one furry see/hear another furry (under the efect of the RDF) the Virus of both exchange <IP-person> links of eachother and save this in the "already changed" Virus Flag.
When a non-infected human see/hear a furry, the Virus try to do some "minor modifications" on the human through the RDF, and then set a "infected" Virus flag on his/her data.

When the server "anual check" detect a human with an "infected" Virus flag, thinks that some very critical "code" is missing in that human, and found a message like: "there is a copy of the same code here: <IP-(furry)person>" (this message and the "missing part" of the code, were the "minor modifications" made by the RDF-Interactive-Section of the Furry Virus).
{The TG Virus do not had this "tricky message" in it´s code, and has to wait the ocurrence of an eventual "copy&paste" for his activation/reproduction (this explain the few hundred human affected for this in thousands of years...), then the relationship between the TG Virus and the Furry Virus is a parasite one (or maybe mutualism, we do not know for sure).}

The server now go to the IP-furry_person and check him/her (see more below), then copy the complete code of the Virus and paste-it in the middle of the code of the "infected" human (because has more elevated access privileges, the "server" can write directly on the most "critical" and "active" part of the code of the infected human, the Virus itself can´t do that); then his/her body it´s "corrected" with the furry data "carried" by the living furry that infected his/her previusly.
The Server set a "xxxx check: DONE" server flag in the new furry (xxxx is the year).
The Virus check the flags, change the "infected" to "already changed" on the newbie furry, and modify his <IP_person> to a higher number (this way every year the server check only the humans and the "infected" humans first).

When the server check a furry, (without the "xxxx check: DONE" of that year) see the "already changed" flag like a "minor" error code, then try to restore his/her original (human) form; but the Virus uses the list of <IP-furry> links, and copy&paste the same Virus code again and again from multiple sources... {this is only posible between furry<->furry , the read&write its not restricted between active "brother" Viruses. In fact some "real virus" an P2P users works like this ^_^)
The server left the furry "minor" code intact, but set "xxxx check: FAIL" flag on him/her and go for the next...
Every time one infected human goes furry, the "check" on the previus furry Virus "carrier" blocks any posibility of ANOTHER human infected (by the same "carrier") goes to furry that year.

This way, every year the contact between every group of furries<->humans AND furries<->furries it´s equal in importance (for the expansion of the Virus) as it was the previusly year, the IP-furry-links only can double the efective total number of furry if already exist some conection between all of they (pasive in great citys, active search&contact in more remote regions). --[[User:Argamis|Argamis]] 00:54, 4 February 2011 (UTC)

== Change and disabilities? ==

I keep forgetting to bring this up on IRC, but how do people (as in writers and other interested people in this setting) think disabilities would be affected by the change? Both Mental and Physical?

Would a paraplegic who lost his legs in an accident regrow them if he changed? Would he regain the use of them if they weren't lost but just disabled? (back injury)? What about false teeth, deafness, blindness, etc?

What if the cause was not from a physical accident, but was viral or bacterial in nature? Some disease struck them blind? Would they stay blind?

And what if the disabilities were genetic? Would those genetic flaws still show in the new form?

Finally, what about mental disabilities? Could the Change 'cure' Alzheimer's? Would it affect someone who is literally a brain dead vegetable on life support?

If it does have curative properties, I suspect we'll start seeing more and more miracle cures (assuming they can survive the flu) in the years to come. Which may imply that there'll be a push in the early to mid 2010's to just keep someone alive as long as possible in the home they Change and are cured/fixed.

Thoughts?

--[[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]] 11:00, 4 February 2008 (EST)

:I think there are good arguments to be made for some healing properties of the Change, but I wouldn't make it go all out. A person missing a limb should still be missing a limb after the change (I have in mind a scene with a one-armed pianist who goes monkey and starts playing with his feet).

:When it comes to things like Alzheimer's, that is a much more difficult choice. I don't see mental retardation being suddenly healed by the Change, as that is a birth defect (and such things happen in animals too). But progressive diseases may backtrack, even if the conditions begin to return over time. That could make an even more painful story, somebody suffering from Alzheimer's, who Changes and now recognizes all his family again. But after a year or so everything starts to slip away again...

:Anyway, the whole keeping folks alive and hoping for a Change could make a good dynamic too. I just think there's a lot fo possibilities to consider before we make a decision on this. --[[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]] 12:24, 4 February 2008 (EST)
::I'm inclined to do as Matthias suggests. It's more or less what I had in mind. However, one of the things that the Change does is it puts everyone in very good health. Even being a 300 pound female bear, CM is in very good shape. It will cure some ailments, and put chronic diseases into remission. Those developments will confuse the medical community enough without regrowing limbs or curing Down's Syndrome. But if you've read the latest Tall Tales, ROB is being forced to act more openly. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 15:40, 4 February 2008 (EST)

:What happens to medical devices like heart pacemakers or hip replacements that were implanted in people before they changed? --[[User:JeniSkunk|Jenifur Charne]] 20:45, 10 February 2008 (EST)

::That's basically an open-ended question. I'm going to leave the answer to that one unsaid because I think it'd be a good Plot Point in a story. A furry episode of ''House'' maybe? --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 22:45, 10 February 2008 (EST)

::Late into the discussion, but better late than never. : ) Anyway, what about things like fillings and caps on teeth? Going to a dentist would be interesting. Going another step, outside medical devices wouldn't fit anymore and would bring up some unique delimas. What about people with prosthetics? If someone turns into a bear, I'm sure their leg isn't going to fit anymore, yet Unknown will wonder why they make such a claim all of a sudden. Lots of places to go with these stories. [[User:Tinbender|Tinbender]] 21:24, 5 May 2008 (EDT)

Hey, not really sure on any of the points raised, have to give it some thought. One thing to consider though is can anthro's act as a bridge to humans for viruses that currently only affect animals?--[[User:Devin|Devin]] 23:35, 10 February 2008 (EST)

== A mortal analysis of Paradise ==

Lets me see if I get some of the details right.

There is a post-singularity Uber-computer, that when projected into 3-space, has the same consistency as humanity's combined thumbnail and happens to be running a simulation of the events leading up to its own creation. Secondly, it gets infected by a super-bug/virus that makes borg nano-probes look overly large and cumbersome. Said post-singularity, sentient, ROB-type entity/ virus changes some lines of code (if such things can be referred to as such) in reference to the people in the simulation, in and around the vicinity of Chicago (maybe the super-bug's designers had way-distant ancestors from there, or whose ancestors had a grudge against the place). The Uber-comp, in a flash of inspiration counters with the 'firewall-from-not-heck', or RDF as we understand it. The ROB is still successful with its dastardly and despicable plan to make the simulated history end differently.

That I get as far as it can be understood by a three-dimensional entity not particularly versed in post-singularity, multi-dimensional physics and computational theory.

The RDF, The Veil, The "Really-Annoying-Mess-Up-Everyones-Lives" Field, appears to start collapsing or 'twisting' in several personal accounts. In fact, it would seem that there are certain individuals who have appeared to figure out means of 'gazing-past' the gaps in said previously mentioned field even though they do not have one of their own. Yes it has been theorized that they will soon fall victim to the ROB, however, consider that all of this is in one sense mere coding (albeit it happens to be far more complex than that), and that said people are taking advantage of 'bugs' in the code. How many bugs are there? Is it possible for someone (probably a changed, or mad scientist) to 'tune' or 'tinker' with the field, probably no more than tweaks to appearance or color? I know the Primary Engineer Of This Work has stated that there are no 'powers', but then again, this is all just code, and hackers can sometimes be just mortal.

Just a thought or two. I should probably stop this monologue before a super spy shows up.
~midon~

:You're pretty close overall, though the simulation doesn't necessarily have to be of the ROB's own creation. Human Earth could be something It came up with all by Itself. Another book that's similar to what I've come up with here is ''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwinia_(novel) Darwinia]''. Someone suggested that the best thing for the ROB to do is to restore from backup. The thing is, these are still people. ROB doesn't have a moral problem with allowing them to die within the sim, but will act to protect both itself and its people from an outside threat. Hence the RDF and other measures.--[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 17:46, 4 February 2008 (EST)

== Thinking far future... ==

First, to make it VERY clear, I am NOT thinking of any stories or anything set in the 2020 period yet. I've just been thinking of how the world may be like by then, as the last half are about to change.

I suspect there would be a mix of celebration (the last humans are joining us!) and mourning (humans will no longer be as they were). Regionally, there will probably be searches for the "last human baby", the ones born days/hours before the last Aug 17 change; they'd probably be local celebrities, similar to "New Years Babies"

And in 2021, the nervousness would start. Is the change source gone? Is it mutating? Are we going to change further? Or into something else now? For the Changed Generation, that little shiver of fear every August 17th will probably persist until they are all gone.

All that assumes civilization hasn't fallen apart by then of course. :)

--[[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]] 10:42, 25 February 2008 (EST)

== Summer Olympics ==

This was nagging at the back of my mind a bit, but I finally nailed it down to actually check dates:

:"The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, will be celebrated from August 8, 2008 to August 24, 2008".

For the record, the 2004 Olympics also just straddled the Change day, having started on Aug 13th. No other Summer Olympics have straddled Change day, but the 1996 games ended just before it, and the Paralympic Games that year did straddle the Change day.

The 2012 games in London curiously have a break between the end of the Olympics on Aug 12, 2012, and the start of the Paralympics on Aug 29.

Just something to think about for writers out there. :)

--[[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]] 10:07, 27 February 2008 (EST)

:The Change takes place right in the middle of the Olympics. All it takes is for one or two athletes to change to gum up the works. These people are already in top physical shape, too. But what happens when a swimmer becomes a dolphin, an otter, or perhaps something that doesn't swim well? I don't think the RDF can handle becoming as large as a rhino. They'll still displace an awful lot of water when they splash in.

:I'll have to mention this in Open Secrets.

:--[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 14:53, 27 February 2008 (EST)

::At least the illness will be a bit of a cover. Depending on how many Changed athletes there are, (both active and new Changed), the illness could be used to skip out on some events out of necessity.

::Still the pressure to perform, even if their form is inappropriate for the sport (A Bull trying to do a polevault or the triathlon in general? A bear for gymnastics? A Mouse in weightlifting? ) will be intense

::There would probably be a lot of discussion when a star athlete suddenly isn't performing as well as they did before.

::Of course, a few years after that, the Beijing Olympics here will probably end up with a * like the LA and Moscow Olympics, as people find out about the Change and the number of ringers (otters in swimming events, felines and primates in gymnastics, gazelles and cheetahs in track events, bears and bulls in weight lifting, etc...) semi-intentionally sent by the various countries. We could very well see TTC-level problems happening in Olympic Village.

--[[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]] 15:07, 27 February 2008 (EST)

== What happens ''after'' 2020? ==

Point one: Computer programs are never ''intrinsically'' equipped with an off-switch. Rather, a shutdown condition must be explicitly coded into a program -- and any program which ''lacks'' an explicit shutdown condition, will continue to chug merrily along until something hardware-ish gets in the way.

Point two: The Change is the result of a 'furry virus", ''i.e.,'' a '''computer program'''.

2020 is when the entire planetary population will be furry... but who's to say the 'furry virus' won't ''continue'' to do its thing, Changing people year in and year out, with each year's quantity of Changes being double that of the year before? We know that being Changed is ''not'' an absolute protection against the 'furry virus' -- the setting rules themselves ''explicitly allow'' previously-Changed people to get hit with another dose of Change, after all -- so ''either'' (a) the 'furry virus' ''does'' have an explicitly-coded off-switch, or else (b) starting in 2020, an ever-increasing number of people are going to end up Changing ''two or more times in any given year.''

If the 'furry virus' ''has'' a built-in off-switch, that begs the question of what, exactly, its shutdown condition ''is.'' Does it stop spreading/infecting when there's no unchanged Human left, is it waiting for some specific event or combination of events before it quits, or what? Perhaps the guy who wrote the 'furry virus' did so with the specific intent of encouraging ROB to make [insert specific changes here] in ROB's virtual world, such that the results of those changes are the virus's 'off-switch'?

If, on the other hand, the 'furry virus' has ''no'' built-in brakes, things can get weird, fast. People have already floated the notion of Changes happening "out of season"; what if these 'unscheduled' Changes are merely a harbinger of things to come, in which people can be re-zapped at any time of year, an arbitrarily large number of times per year? It may be instructive, or at least amusing, to extrapolate the data given in "The Numbers", and divide each year's expected number of Changes by the expected population for that year: In 2020, there's 1.12 Changes per person (perhaps every human being Changes, regardless of their current state, and there's a 12% chance of one guy Changing ''twice?).'' Since we're basically talking about a doubling function, it only takes until 2024 for every ex-human to be an involuntary member of the Change Of The Month Club (because there's a touch over 17 Changes per person that year), and the Change Of The '''Day''' Club starts up in 2029 (during which year there's a bit less than 514 Changes per person per year). In 2034, the extrapolated number of Changes per person for that year is significantly over 15,000 (which works out to about 7/4 of a Change ''per hour,'' every hour, for every human being); by 2040, we hit 1.75 Changes per ''minute;'' 2046 is when every human being starts to hit 1 Change per ''second.''

To repeat what I said above: Things get weird, fast.

Obviously, the above figures are ridiculous, since they're derived from mindless extrapolation of an exponential curve. Perhaps the most sensible way to go is to presume that ROB manages to ''do'' something about the metatstasizing 'furry virus' no later than 2025 or so. In any case, one hopes said figures at least provide a bit of food for thought... [[User:Cubist|Cubist]] 05:03, 10 March 2008 (EDT)

== Change and the Media ==

It's probably a sign that I watch WAY too much TV, but it's a theme that's been in the back of my mind (man that back area's getting mighty crowded with ideas). As the Change progresses, even with the Veil in place, more and more effects of the Change will start showing up in other ways, and it will become more and more 'public' even if the Unchanged won't really know what is going on. I suspect TV shows especially will begin to show a lot of these.

This is just some of my rambling thoughts on what the TV Cable signals might be sending to the screens of the Changed near-Future.

Reality TV in all its forms will probably be the first to really start showing the effects of the Changed, since they tend to have the fastest turnaround time and the most contact with non-actors. Court shows (like I wrote in my short story case) will have more and more cases of Changed vs Norms and even weird Changed vs Changed cases. "He won't share the nail clippers!" "She gifted me the money for the vacation to Alaska in January")

Gameshows also will start having more Changed contestants, especially popular ones like Price is Right.

And then you have the Survivor types. Show's like "Top Model" and "Bachelor(ette)" and "Blind Date" (especially given the Change's habit of giving the Changed Eye-turning bodies) will probably have the most Changed on a show early on (whether intentionally or unintentionally).

Home Makeover shows may start seeing even weirder designs as designers/homeowners remake rooms to give room for antlers or bigger buttons for hoof fingers and such. (We thought Frank's designs on Trading Spaces were weird BEFORE he Changed... :P )

Amazing Race may have a Changed Team soon; a few Changed in the Big Brother House (probably intentionally put in there by a Changed Studio staffer), and the next Survivor or two would probably have some contestants.

Once the Field comes down, I fully expect CBS to roll out a "Furries vs Normals" Survivor while they can.

Now onto more tasteful TV. (arguably :P )

Cartoons? (what few new ones that are made) will likely start having more and more of a furry bend to them. Hallowe'en specials may turn 'human' toons into furry ones as experiments to transition shows.

Soaps? Expect Change stories fairly soon I dare say. I don't watch them myself, but from what I've heard of some storylines they've done in the past, the Change isn't all that strange. These writers will probably be chaffing at the restrictions of the Field the most.

Sitcoms will probably start getting Changed in-jokes fairly quickly as more Changed writers and actors come on staff. Some of the jokes may verge on Veil-breaking too, but viewers would discount as visual FX.

Procedurals/Drama's, business as normal but more Change-related stories. Maulings and gorings investigated on CSI's (along with strange fingerprints/bootprints, hair samples, etc...), Without a Trace investigating people who disappear after Change Day, maybe even a TG mystery. Numb3rs maybe touching on the Change rate (imagine Chris brought in as an advisor for an ep ? :) ). House or ER dealing with a Changed patient and/or Changed doctors/nurses.

And finally (for now) Sci Fi/Fantasy shows will probably find themselves in a very difficult position. On the one hand, they'd be ideal to start exploring the Change itself. On the other hand, as long as the Field is in effect, they can't really explore them since they'd have to turn normals into Furry's (or dress furry's in fursuits). Plus, a show's setting may not exactly be ideal for adjusting to the Change. "SG-1/Atlantis" may be able to adjust (turn it into an Ori curse or something), but Terminator would have a harder time. Heroes could probably pull it off, but BSG? Unlikely. (Imagine them finding 'Earth' but it's a Furry Earth... Hmmm...)

Anyways, that's just some of my rambling thoughts on the TV of the near future, for what its worth.

:There's a simple way to make furries show up in Television. Simply use the polarized lenses as featured in Open Secrets on the video camera units. The image of the furries would pass through the polarized lenses onto the film. The film would record the true image in the same way that people would see the true image. Boom, RDF circumvented. --[[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]] 12:26, 28 January 2009 (EST)

:: True those would work. But everyone involved for those scenes would have to Know or questions would be raised. Depending on the scene and production. (Thouhg some could be handwaved, as long as the producer/editors Know. "Bob's gonna play the part of a man-rat for this scene. We'll CG-replace him in Editing afterward"

::--[[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]] 12:33, 28 January 2009 (EST)

::: Well, at the very least, the cameraman is going to be in the know fast! Actually, I could see something like this being done once things go public. We could have a documentary on the early Changed (while you can still get human actors!), and you'd have some cameras with the filter on it and some without so you could show what the Changed sees and what the unsuspecting humans around him see. --[[User:98.236.12.68|98.236.12.68]] 05:14, 29 January 2009 (EST)

:::: That is happening to some extent, though not with the filters yet. Shiloh (and her new boyfriend newly Changed this year) are doing what they can to document the Change and how it affects lives as it happens (on the side from their main jobs), and I'm sure she's far from alone on this.

:::: Once more Documentary makers get ahold of this and it goes public, I'm sure there will be more too.

::::--[[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]] 10:33, 29 January 2009 (EST)

== Furries in Space? ==

OK Time for even more thoughts from me. :) Endeavor's launch last night triggered this thought.

I'm not going to elaborate, but is anyone watching the ISS crew for change symptoms? Or the shuttle crew if they're up? A Change up there could be Veil breaking just because of the amount of attention and lack of privacy those people have. (not to mention the extreme circumstances they'd be under).

The Change itself could very well spell the end of Manned space flight for the next few decades in the end.

Not sure if it would spell the end of manned space flight but yeah even just an examination of the air filter would find stuff that couldn't have gotten up there any other way.--[[User:Devin|Devin]] 19:16, 11 March 2008 (EDT)

:I'm sure it'd be the end of manned space flight for quite some time simply for economic reasons if nothing else. This is going to be rather disruptive and there'll probably be a bit of a budget pinch. [[User:Bryan|Bryan]] 19:21, 18 March 2008 (EDT)

==The Reality Distortion Field is Real ==

Sadly, not the one you have in mind: http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/18/2117208 :) [[User:Bryan|Bryan]] 19:21, 18 March 2008 (EDT)

== Bats? ==

Just a question about the species: I've noticed you put aside birds for now, but what about bats?--[[User:142.68.130.19|142.68.130.19]] 23:52, 1 April 2008 (EDT)

:Bats will put a huge strain on the Veil. If/when they do show up, it might be coming down by then anyway. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 00:36, 2 April 2008 (EDT)

== Farming in Paradise ==

Just shooting an idea in here for later. [http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080410153658.htm This is the technology] widely deployed it the Paradise setting. But put the clock back ten years (1997 discovery, widespread global deployment by 2008). Biochar/agrichar. With any luck, the Green Revolution will be replaced with the Black Gold Revolution quickly. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 03:27, 15 April 2008 (EDT)

== BioFuels ==

Jon, you're beginning to scare me a bit. :P

This was just on Slashdot this morning: [http://www.utexas.edu/news/2008/04/23/biofuel_microbe/ New Source for Biofuels Discovered by Researchers At The University of Texas at Austin]

Basically, some bacteria that can make cellulose which can be turned to fuel, and the cellulose can be harvested without harming the bacteria.
--[[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]] 06:10, 25 April 2008 (EDT)

:I read about this yesterday. They hope to increase production efficiency 17-fold because otherwise, you'd have to cover the ''entire'' Midwest with this. Unfortunately it won't happen fast enough to prevent the shortages I know are coming.

:I read about this stuff every day. I mean, ''every'' day. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 14:19, 25 April 2008 (EDT)

Another bit of news: [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4133668.ece "Scientists find bugs that eat waste and excrete petrol."] --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 11:12, 15 June 2008 (EDT)

== The Chicago Ghost Killer ==

After having seen countless videos of Persona 3 on youtube, and having played the .hack//GU games, and having read about this setting repeatedly, this idea was born out of my skull. It doesn't really fit with the setting per-say, (people dealing with expected changes in their lives and the changing of culture as truth becomes harder and harder to keep hidden), but it's still interesting.

Imagine if once the number of furries hits the thousand mark or close to it (1997), a strange series of murders begin in Chiago and wander outwards. To normal police and investigators these people have -nothing- in common, just random innocent people. But the furries know that every single person killed was a furry! Now this is where things start to get weird.

When seen by furries, the killer is a lanky laid back twenty something raven haired young man whose expression almost always remains passive wearing semi-formal dark clothes with a revolver in one hand and spare bullets in the opposite pocket.

When the police just about anyone else whose effected by the perception filter see him, they see 'Average Joe' or 'Face You Can't Help But Forget' and never ever notice the weapon he's holding unless he hits them with it or shoots them or something just as drastic. It is also is picked up by metal detectors the same as any metal gun. In other words, his existence, is like the existence of furriness to normal humans, his existence effects them, but they can't notice him directly.

This guy always knows a furry when he sees one regardless of media or medium, or reads one, this include file records of people TGed by the virus. When he spots one or finds out about one, he calmly location that person, in order of him learning about them, and shoot that person in the head without fanfare then simply move on to the next one.

Physically his strength and speed are all perfectly average human, meaning a bear or tiger furry could easy tear him apart.

Strange thing is that if profiled, no records of him will turn up, anywhere!

Also, he might even begin to appear DIFFERENTLY to people who are under the effect of the perception filter. He can't appear as a furry, and can NEVER EVER appear as a precise person (he can't appear as someone's mother or brother). But he can ultimately change how people look at him, they see a five year old girl with a teddy bear opposed to a man with a revolver even if he STILL can't fit in a toy car for the life of him and that 'bear' might go off if someone else 'hugs' it, (which he'd avoid someone doing at all posts). He could also appear as a fire fighter or police officer if he gets clever enough. Though furries will -always- see through this disguise. Along with any human whose able to see furries without effort.

The Chicago Ghost Killer never attacks non-changed humans, and will never take a shot if there's a reasonable chance of shooting a non-changed person.

He travels by mundane methods, he always travels by the most practical and speedy method and always has the correct change or ticket (this is not an illusion). His taxi, train, or airplane never crash.

If detained for questioning, he might just walk straight out of the police station unless some of the cops are furries. If stripped of his weapon and ammo next time he shows up he'll have a new set perfectly identical to the last one down to the imperfections in the casing.

Now this is where things get ambiguous. I don't know if he's killed he just appears in Chicago the day after the change again each year, or weather two different people with abilities similar to his appear in his stead these armed with a crossbow and another one shot distance weapon.

Since deleting the entire universe is not an option, The Chicago Ghost Killer might be an emergency fail safe to try and cut off the infected flesh from the system.

His name comes from where he started killing (strangely the same place as the changes began) and the fact that to normal humans he IS like a ghost, there yet not there but decidedly felt.

I know this doesn't really fit with the setting at all, but I just had to share it with the only people who'd appreciate it.

Thank you.

- Alex Warlorn. 2008 06 15

:And his name is Agent Johnathan Walker Smith, is it? Seems like a Matrix Agent to me... (unsigned comment)
::Actually I don't think he'd -have- a name, or even know the true nature of the world, he'd just know what he -had- to do and how to do it and how he can do it.-- Alex Warlorn

== Octuplets born in California ==

Things that make you go Hmmmm....

8 babies at once
Planning to breast feed them all.
Names not being released (yet).

Could we have a changed couple hiding out there from the glare of the media spotlight? :)

--[[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]] 15:25, 27 January 2009 (EST)

=='''Future RDF Failure'''==

I'm starting to work out ideas about how the RDF would fail. My current thinking is that it will work on a small scale first. Visually, there would be a "refraction", like seeing your own eyes through your glasses. Or your leg halfway in a pool. This is the "Refraction Effect". These are places where the RDF has been removed, like a section of glass, revealing the Real World underneath. It's gone. The visual effect makes it clear a border's been crossed. I'm not sure ''when'' this is going to happen. Probably sometime near the US Gov wants to go public. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 07:57, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

===Weirdness Censor?===

I've been thinking about an "RDF Lite" that could basically act as a Weirdness Censor instead of the full blown see-furries-as-humans version that exists right now. There'd still be social upheaval, but not the civilization-ending type that would most likely happen. I'm very likely going to do this in After Hours, but I want to do it right. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 23:37, 21 May 2009 (UTC)

==Shoe Field Failure?==

[http://www.boingboing.net/2011/03/16/hoof-shoes.html Hoof shoes for about $1,700 ]. What's next? Paw shoes? --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 21:06, 16 March 2011 (UTC)

==The "Posthuman" World ==

In order to differentiate this setting from WoC more, I'm going to keep a certain number of regular humans in the furry world that results when the virus runs its course. Same rules as other furry types as far as parent-child species. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 19:41, 4 June 2009 (UTC)

:No offense, but that feels like a cop-out to me. As someone else pointed out, a computer virus is NOT going to simply 'burn itself out' a computer virus continues like any program infinitely unless it's directly ordered to. Once it runs out of humans to transform, it'll start to transform furries into other species, and become even more chaotic as time progresses. I just feels cheap the virus suddenly just stops, and it doesn't make sense form a programming point of view either since it would open MANY MORE cans of worms anyway. -- Alex Warlorn June 15 2009

::Okay. How to address this? A lot of my ideas for this setting comes from Charles Stross's work, which can get pretty mind-bending at times. ''Accelerando, Glasshouse, Singularity Sky'', and ''Iron Sunrise'' all come to mind. One of my basic assumptions is that the Furry Virus is itself sentient/sapient, but it's not ''quite'' as smart as the transhuman intelligence running the Simulation Space that is our universe (down to the Planck Length).

::The RDF was a last-ditch effort to maintain the experiment as it was. We're all a bunch of microbes, as far as ROB is concerned. But It's not the type of Being to just chuck the whole experiment into the incinerator and start over. At this point ROB has scrapped the original experiment in favor of trying to prevent our little petri dish universe from going completely bad. So, 1) contain the Furry Virus, and 2) prevent it from doing any more damage beyond 2020 by creating a specific End State. The FV remains, but it becomes an uncommon chronic disease.

::Frankly, now that furries and the TGed have been Outed ROB may even stop the history editing. More obvious actions include: Refilling dead oilfields, creating social conditions so humans aren't really surprised at the Change. There are probably all kinds of countermeasures ROB has done that I haven't thought of in order to keep people from going ''crazy crazy'' and incinerating their own petri dish. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 03:57, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

:::I was thinking of a similar idea, but in a programming context as opposed to a biological one, and ''very'' limited. Think of every person as an element of an array, i.e. Human[]. An algorithm designed to change the values of every element, like the furry virus is doing, would most likely go from 0 to some constant POPULATION_HUMAN. In that case, ROB might be able to circumvent the effects for the virus for a select few by assigning people to special values: NULL, NaN, -1, MAX_INT, INFINITY, or other predefined numbers, even those that aren't considered "special" to humans. The purpose of this would be to preserve ''some'' unaltered "data" for purposes not important to us, and it can't be done for all humans because of the effort or memory required to "manually" fix so many values.

:::Conversely, perhaps ROB will let the virus run its course so It can then safely run a variation of the virus to turn everyone back into humans. That would be another interesting take: when the world's furry in 2020, how will everyone feel when they find out they'll all be human again by about 2055, depending on population, and perhaps if the same thing happens in cycles? ...

:::...Or if it turns out that life has been this way for a long, ''long'' time. Thinking back to what ROB has been able to do, this is easily within Its power. -- [[User:MisterBackground|MisterBackground]] 05:31, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

::::ROB figures it's best to let the virus run its course then neutralize it like I've described. Perhaps ROB's reworking the Experiment to account for the new changes.--[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 06:04, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

:::::Colons! Colons as far as the eye can see! Ahaha.

:::::One little problem I had with ''Accelerando'' (though I did indeed love it in all other respects) was how completely unfathomable the Higher Beings were. You never could figure out what their reasons were for anything…and in fact, in all their interactions with the remnants of pre-Singularity humanity, they mostly seemed to delight in "poking the anthill". Sending boatloads of recreations of historical and fictitious characters out to that space station just to mess with humanity's minds. And not only could you not ask them why, you wouldn't be able to understand their answer if you did. Hence, one of the things that you hope you learn in the end—the question of "why?"—is forever unanswered.

:::::It would be kind of nice to have some of the characters eventually be able to confront ROB and the virus and ask them what the deal was, but I'm not holding my breath any. —[[User:Robotech Master|Robotech Master]] 06:22, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

::::::I'm very, ''very'' careful not to jump the shark. But at the very least ROB does have some empathy for us microbes. While ROB does do some "resimulation" for TGed folk, it absolutely ''will not'' alter memories because that would cause personality death.

::::::Paradise is more similar too ''[http://www.amazon.com/Darwinia-Novel-Different-Twentieth-Century/dp/0812566629 Darwinia]'' than ''Accelerando''. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 18:58, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

:::Another possibility I just thought about: perhaps this isn't the act of a virus at all. Instead this is the fix to an ancient "Human Virus" that infected the universe, and it's just restoring the original experiment (or whatever). Or if you ''really'' want to throw people off: humanity ''is'' the virus itself, and this is how ROB is solving the problem. -- [[User:MisterBackground|MisterBackground]] 07:25, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

::Well, to be fair, this is a post-Singularity virus. Nobody ever said it was strictly one-function only. For all we know, it may have a behavioral change programmed into it. "Take Z action until condition A is met, then switch to taking Y action until condition B is met, etc." Or heck, the virus itself may be a sentient/sapient digital life form with free will, fully able to "change its mind" when it wants to. Certainly there is some intelligent agency at work behind the Reality Distortion Field that has already shown the ability to change its own behavior or react to changes in infected people's situations (changing TG furs' "ghosts"—and all extant records—from male to female when they get pregnant, for instance). No reason the virus can't be the same way. —[[User:Robotech Master|Robotech Master]] 23:32, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

:How is that going to work? I'm not sure how humanity can propagate by the "same rules" as other furry types given that it's been established humans and furres are not able to interbreed. Perhaps there might be an inverse of the Sleeping Sickness (a Waking Sickness? :) which causes furries to randomly mutate back into human in addition to the other types of furry form? —[[User:Robotech Master|Robotech Master]] 22:31, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

::Two thoughts: 1) In 2021 there's a group of humans worldwide who don't Change. They're simply the one species among many. After this point they can breed with furres because the RDF is down anyway. Perhaps they can already do this in Bubbled areas in 2010. 2) Human forms can be a recessional trait that shows up on occasion, between two furres.

::Furry babies already look ''very'' human due to a type of neoteny. Even the herbivores like horses and deer have very stubby muzzles. It looks more like a mask when they're born. Within two years those muzzle stubs grow the "baby animal" proportions, then as normal. They're generally more thinly furred for those first two years also. I keep thinking of puppies. No matter what the breed, they all look ''extremely'' similar when newborn. Same will be true in this setting. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 23:55, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Additionally, TG and TF will continue. I'm thinking of something akin to Matthias' character, with random changes. It'll be considered a chronic disease. And the severe forms ''can'' kill you. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 06:40, 5 June 2009 (UTC)

::I know this addition to the comment is like 2 years after this discussion happened (not counting the little server loss and what may have been lost there) but anyway, I had a thought here, although it's admittedly more biological-related than computer-related. Specifically, what if certain people just happened to have an immunity to the furry virus? Nobody would know they were immune until 2020 when they don't change. Whether natural, or a last-ditch effort by the RDF that came too late for almost everyone else, it could theoretically be an explanation.

== Possibly the first occurance of ROB ==

As I mentioned when I introduced him, ROB (Random Omnipotent Being) comes from some other message boards I regularly view/visit. Well someone seems to have found what may have been the first occurrence of ROB. [http://forums.spacebattles.com/showthread.php?t=53955] Pretty humble beginnings for him if you ask me. :) (His brother, COROB (Crossover Obsessed Random Omnipotent Being) similarly had humble beginnings a month or so later. [http://forums.spacebattles.com/showthread.php?t=55397] )

== The RDF and extra extremities. ==

Assume here that the RDF is functioning normally and hasn't broken down. Normal humans can't feel the extra extremities of the Changed, like tails and horns - they just feel empty air. But what would another Changed see if they were to look at a normal human attempting to touch a Changed's tail? Would they see the human seemingly passing their hand through the tail of the Changed? [[User:CNash|CNash]] 23:52, 15 July 2009 (UTC)

:I think you've got it wrong. Extra extremities can still be physically felt. The RDF is like a holographic cloak around the changed - it doesn't actually have an effect on their form. -- [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] 00:57, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

:Shadow is basically correct. Their hand wouldn't pass through empty air. They would meet some weird resistance, but they'd forget about it in a short time. Other Changed would see them touch the tail they can't see. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 01:03, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

:: I was going by a line in "Made Alone"; CM's diary entry: ''I say, `Oh yeah, here, grab my tail'. He humors me, but he cannot feel it. I feel him put his hand on it, but he just doesn't feel it.'' - I haven't yet read through all the stories and I'm going chronologically. [[User:CNash|CNash]] 11:26, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

:::If there's one thing I've learned about running a shared setting is to ''not'' demand ironclad continuity. I always allow authors leeway for dramatic purposes, and I don't mind if events don't quite match up. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 00:19, 17 July 2009 (UTC)

::::Given that is the earliest described Change event, I just assumed that the Veil was stronger back then, and since lessened to the extent of allowing feeling of extremities. —[[User:Robotech Master|Robotech Master]] 07:32, 17 July 2009 (UTC)

== Glitch ==

Assertion one: Universe of Paradise setting is mathmatically generated by advanced post-singularity computer. Assertion two: Pre-singularity computers have demonstrated randomized renumbering of internal programing due to outside factors. These renumberings are identified as "glitches," having no basis in programming like bugs and viruses. Assumption: Post singularity computer operates with similar if heavily advanced hardware as pre-singularity computer. Conclusion: Randomized renumberings of programming will occur independently of programming. That is to say, it is not inconceivable that somewhere, a coffee cup on the table is suddenly on the counter. Or that an ant becomes a different species of ant. Or that a gray-eyed man one day has blue eyes. Perhaps these small changes are common and constant. -- [[User:Masterweaver|Masterweaver]] 05:28, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

== Species Expansion ==

We have already seen at least one Elephant man. Is the Furry Virus, as it expands, drawing from a larger gene base? And if so, when would the first nonmammalians arise? Personally, I'm expecting crocs in the near future. Perhaps even 2010... -- [[User:Masterweaver|Masterweaver]] 22:41, 11 November 2009 (UTC)

:The setting is mammals only. Reptiles and birds have very different reproductive biologies. Birds wouldn't be able to fly and cold-blooded creatures can't support a human-like brain and its energy requirements. -- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 01:04, 12 November 2009 (UTC)

== An observation ==

From what I've read, the 'computer simulation' theory is just that- a theory. There's no point blank evidence that this is what's happening within the storyline, and, while I obviously shouldn't just stroll in and rewrite things, but I'd ask the main participators in this storyline to keep this in mind. -- [[User:MCMackers|MCMackers]] -- (note added by [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] 22:43, 12 November 2009 (UTC))

:Jon is the creator of the setting and he has final say in these things... He has not ruled on this yet, but I think he will if it becomes a problem. -- [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] 22:43, 12 November 2009 (UTC)

== If a person doesn't TF again next year... ==

Maybe I missed something. Is it right that if a person doesn't TF again the year after they first change, they stop changing for good? Thinking of the story's setting (computer simulation), if the change is caused by a virus, surely it could keep affcting people? If that doesn't make sense I'll expand, but surely someone knows what I'm talking about. -- [[User:MCMackers|MCMackers]] -- signature added by [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] )

:First it's "bear", not "bare" - homophones are a big stumbling point for a large portion of people, so I try to help people where I can with them :)

: Second... Remember that the whole "post-singularity simulation infected by a virus" schtick is just one possible cause. Jon has said that it could be, but has not pinned it on that. If it really is a virus, then there is a possibility that you could change again 20 years down the line. However... It might be that the multi-change people are somehow an exception - like the virus leaves behind a flag saying "infected" (you'll find this with existing computer viruses, actually) and with multi-changers this flag is missing. Or it could be that the multi-changers are actually being created because of ROB trying to undo the damage done by the virus. And a third possibility is that there is no "virus" and the change is happening according to a plan setup by the people that programmed the simulation - and the multi-changers were randomly selected to be multi-changers.

:In other words... Even if you assume that the postulated "post-singularity simulation" is reality the change could be more than a virus and the limits on multiple changes could be somehow tied directly to the purposes that the simulation was created for... Anyway... I've gone on too long with this. -- [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] 19:03, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

::Ugh. I actually thought whilst typing, "that's not right, it should be bare..." blast. So much for trying to write a story if I can't do that kind of simple thing.

::Thanks for your help. I'm trying to make sure I understand the setting as best I can so I can make my story (hopefully a series, but maybe I'm being a bit ambitious) as best as possible. I'm trying to break the mould... Most characters in the Paradise setting seem to be similar. If my first attempt works, I might try one with a different character... Actually, I'd probably do it even if it didn't work :) -- [[User:MCMackers|MCMackers]]

:::Just to be clear, it is a simulation running on a post-Singularity cloud of computronium. And it is a virus doing the dirty work. :) -- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 02:34, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

:::: *GACK* - Last time I read the setting page that was still a "speculation" bit :( -- [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] 08:10, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

== Human/Furry detail ==

More prattling, sorry. Bear with me (Heh. Got it right this time.).

The information on smaller details in the differences between humans and furs is irritatingly lax, and I hit a block while writing my own story stressing over an incredibly minor detail. My problem aside, I think that the lack of detail makes it awkward to write... Would two characters that changed into the same species be exactly the same anatomically? I'm not sure. A couple of stories have thrown me in that respect, mainly "A Kind of Paradise", and "Twisting the Veil". I feel like I'm having a bit of a whine actually, and should just get on with it, but right now, I feel like speaking my mind. -- [[User:MCMackers|MCMackers]]

:The anatomical differences between furry species can vary, but not so much that they become incompatible with each other. This is why I didn't want to add birds/reptiles/fish/insects. They're just too different. If they're the same species, they're exactly the same. There is a variance in hair (Some have it, some don't) otherwise everyone is firmly anthro rather than, say, animal ears and tail and nothing else. -- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 02:37, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

::I understand why there are only mammals in the setting, personally I think it's a good choice. I wasn't really thinking about the degrees of how human/animalistic people are, but rather what traits they take on when they change. For example, I know that people have commented on changes in sounds and smells, but not sight, is sight affected? -- [[User:MCMackers|MCMackers]]

:::About the sight, in one [[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]]´s story, a morph rat can see the shape and size of objects & dodge them while running, (only with the light of the stars in a moonless night); other humans in the same place need to use flashlights. The same caracter can see colors, read or driving a car like any other human in normal light conditions.
:::Other changed caracter had problems related to perception of deep & 3D; the benefit of a more wide angle of vision it´s not something really useful in the for-human-designed world. --[[User:Argamis|Argamis]] 13:29, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

::And, as for traits, I know that most species of rodents are incapable of vomiting, fox example. But would the humans be affected by this? Of course, I'm not asking for all the details, that would be ridiculous considering the number of possibilities. I just don't want to write something that doesn't follow the rules of the setting. -- [[User:MCMackers|MCMackers]]

:::Actually... Things like that are, IMHO, why the 'Sleeping Sickness' bracelets have been issued. -- [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] 08:10, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

::::Um, yes, those. Maybe I haven't been reading the right stories, but to the best of my knowledge, the bracelets are to let doctors know (provided they already know about the whole thing) what you changed into. Have I missed something? (I feel like I'm asking too many questions. Sorry.) -- [[User:MCMackers|MCMackers]]

:::::There is a mention in one of a changed that was a species to which aspirin is toxic being killed by a doctor prescribing aspirin... I just don't remember which story that was. The stories about Doctor Clay have most of the good information about how changed can suffer from problems/illnesses incumbent to their species. (IIRC there is a judge that starts suffering from a problem only seen in horses - and he's a horse...) -- [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] 08:43, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

::::::The idea behind the "Sleeping Sickness" bracelets was pretty much a (bad) attempt by a small group at the CDC to get help to Changed. Hospitals were supposed to report such cases that presented in order for doctors in the know to be summoned. It was created essentally with the idea that it wasn't really a workable solution, but the best that could be come up with. The factoid that came up about toxic medications was based on a factoid I heard many years ago, that penicillian has a singular toxicity for rodents. As such, as drug testing is set up today, its unlikely it would ever be approved. The idea is that there is enough transformation that people might pick up certiain toxic reactions to things that they didn't realize. I'm not sure anyone has really gone into depth with this, but I'd think you could infer that some canines would have violent reactions to chocolate, for example. Like all things, there would be some variability, just like some dogs can seem to eat chocolate fine while others it might kill. -- [[User:Eirik|Eirik]] 23:52, 23 November 2009 (UTC)

== Extreame ROB ==

I had an odd thought last night about the implications of what ROB does with respect to rewriting documentation of peoples pasts. ROB has been known to change paperwork, pictures and even apparent histories of people. (Didn't someone in After Hours discover they were supposed to have dated people earlier as the opposite gender?) That got me to thinking about how far this might all go. Assuming that ROB doesn't actually start to mess with memories, will it start to alter older records? Pictures from earlier than the first Change, even for subjects that died before it all started? Paintings? And would they be consistent? Would every painting done of George Washington find the same form? And to take it a few steps further, what about statues? This could get messy... which isn't always a bad thing from a story perspective. -- [[User:Eirik|Eirik]] 15:20, 2 December 2009 (UTC)

:I can see that happening more as a result of the furry virus, since that kind of extreme "history editing" feels more malevolent to me than something ROB would do. -- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 20:42, 2 December 2009 (UTC)

::Interesting though that would be, it's an important plot mechanic for there to still be remnants of the human world - Once the entire human race has transformed, they need to still be aware that this has happened - Rewriting history would remove this and it would be as if nothing happened... if you see what I mean? -- [[User:MCMackers|MCMackers]]

::It would make sense for things to get messy if it were the virus causing it. Sloppy, half rewritten pasts, people not sure of what really happened and what didn't, more like a temporal infection than a careful rewriting. That kind of scare could lead the reader to be a bit more sympathetic about ROB trying to stop the virus's progression. It would also make a great opportunity to go all Serial Experiments Lain on a story and leave people wondering wtf -- [[User:Pandora|Tasci]] 09:10, 2 May 2010 (UTC)

== Furry Sizes ==

What size are furries? It's pretty clear that bears are big and mice are small, and it mostly makes sense to have the same thing (but not as extreme) for anthroid furries, but there are some other size differences I can't so easily imagine. Some guidelines might be helpful. Ferrets in particular, ferret males are often twice as big as ferret females, as is the case of many mustelids, but at the same time both of them are smaller than cats. If I make a female ferret larger than a rat, and a male ferret smaller than a cat, that's starting to leave not so much room to spare. If I had to finagle a scale I'd say

* mice - 1.2 meters (or less!)
* rats - 1.3 meters
* female ferrets, squirrels, minks, etc - 1.4 meters
* male ferrets, ringtails, mongooses - 1.6 meters
* female cats - 1.7 meters
* male cats, skunks, raccoons - 1.8 meters uh...
* big cats and wolves - 1.9-2.0
* big stuff like bears - all the way to 2.2.

But then again it might also be fun to have a 2 metres tall cavy. GEORGE LOVES YOU COME GIVE GEORGE A BIG HUG.

Maybe illustrating size differences between sexes is a bit too piccaunish. >.<
-- [[User:Pandora|Tasci]] 09:04, 2 May 2010 (UTC)

:I should personally think that irrelevant. While there's clearly going to be some destinction between heights and races, I think guidelines are unnesecary. People come in all shapes and sizes, this individuallity should be maintained. -- [[User:MCMackers|MCMackers]]

One little detail though, (and it doesn't really apply to me but may for others), removing hippo's, rhino's and elephants from the pool seems to be a bit speciest, considering moose are allowed. In looking at the Wiki, it seems that hippos (1.5meters) and rhinos (2.0 meters) are actually generally smaller or the same size as the largest moose (2.1 metres) species. Elephants seem to average about a meter or two larger than the moose.

Perhaps a better restriction would be to allow any land mammal (and any sea mammal that is between the sizes of the minimum land mammal size and the maximum land mammal size), but set minimum and maximum furre sizes; something like a min of 1.2 metres or 4ft to a max of 2.0 metres or 7ft.

Anyways, I'll try and keep an eye on things and see if I can culture this idea I've got further. - 19:50, 10 January 2008 [[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]]

== Human Survival ==

Since the US government, and governments of the world, would have obviously known about the furry changes for many years as government officials became Changed, they logically would have set up Projects (like the Manhattan Project) to study the reasons and try and find a solution. It is obvious to them that the end of humanity will come and this should have all contries of the world enganged in studying the scientific causes of the RDF and ways to affect it. Many of the scientists themselves who get changed would surely want to study the effect. Any physics professor changed would jump at the chance to study it and get the next Nobel prize for figuring it out. It does defy natural laws, therefore the new laws it does follow can be studied. If there is some master computer responsible for the universe, such as in Jack Chalker's "Well of Souls" books, then this it might be possible for a "super computer" build by the UN or whoever to communicate with the ROB virus program or even the Master computer itself, and change it, such as the computer "Obie" in the Well World books. Personally, I favor a different approach. In 1987 a super computer someplace near Chicago DID develop self awareness, predicted that mankind was going to overpopulate and destroy the planet, and it decided to "FIX" things by connecting with the main universal computer at the center of the universe on a night when the least number of galaxies are in the way, which happens to be Aug 17. The governments at some point would find out that the birth rate is on a serious decline even though it is possible for furries to have babies, it is not as common as humans due to all the different genetics and species involved. Mating a horse furry with a rabbit furry is much less likly to produce offspring, for example, that mating a horse furry with another horse furry, so regardless of who was married to who when they are human, statistically the couple won't be able to have children after both change, unless they are the same. Some story about finding the ROB computer near Chicago before 2020 should be a possibility and reasoning with it might be a good solution.
-- [[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]] 02:37, 6 July 2010 (UTC)

:The thing is, there is no ROB computer in our world, if I'm understanding what you're saying here. It isn't like Obie or the Well World where it's something inside the Universe itself that's causing the Change. This setting--basically our world--exists as a Planck-level simulation space inside a post-Singularity posthuman computer. There are two viruses (also posthuman, slightly more advanced) responsible for the Change: A relatively controllable TG virus, and the much newer "furry virus" that ROB can't contain with "history editing".
Keep in mind that governments didn't really know this was even happening until the early 2000s.
Otherwise, the RDF/Change as a source of study for physicists is a good angle.
-- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 18:57, 6 July 2010 (UTC)

::I just hate to plug but if you want an example of how goverments might screw up the change read my story [[User:Fibio|Cascade Failure]]
-- [[User:Fibio|Fibio]] 20:42, 6 July 2010 (UTC)

::Of course, in a way it's kind of pointless even to know about it, since I can't really foresee any way that it could ever become a plot point within the story itself. I can't really see humanity figuring out how to "hack" its way out.
It doesn't really make that much of a difference, from an in-universe standpoint, to assume that it's all being done by "magic". (Any sufficiently advanced technology…) —- [[User:Robotech Master|Robotech Master]] 21:23, 6 July 2010 (UTC)

:::Pretty much [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RealityWarper] all around. :) -- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 22:27, 6 July 2010 (UTC)

Wow, thanks folks for all the replies to my post! People to talk to! OK, first JonBuck, I am not really sure I understand all the Plank-level simulation space inside a post-singularity posthuman supercomputer stuff (I did try to look up the story Accelerando but I just found a book cover) but I interpret this to mean: Plank-Level = really really small; simulation space = not real or temporary space in computer memory; post-singularity = after a black hole evaporates in about a few trillion years; post human = mankind extinct; supercomputer = something like the Cosmic AC in [http://www.multivax.com/last_question.html] ?

However, my ignorance aside, regardless of what the supercomputer is, or what we are, it would in effect be God. Now ROB could represent the devil, or if God has gone crazy, the savior. ROB either was created by the supercomputer "GOD" on purpose or by accident, it was created by a simulation universe, either our own, a past one, or another running concurrently, to infect God, or it was created by God's creators as some part of the God computer for some purpose and function, and if that is the case then either it is carrying out its intended program or it has malfunctioned. I think that is a complete list of all possible options, so if I have missed one then please let me know.

You stated, "It comes from outside the post-Singularity brain, and is slightly more advanced than "ours". What's happening is this bit of malicious code (sentient, no less, but on a level far beyond our ability to comprehend it) is messing up the simulated world we reside in. Why? I dunno. One of those inscrutable things." This sentient "virus" needs to have come from one of the posibilities above, and I suppose it is up to you to decide which, but since "you dunno", then I will try to help.

I guess the first question is "Why did God create the universe?" which translated means "Why is the supercomputer running the simulation?" Is the goal good or evil? Perhaps the supercomputer was programed to do so for an evil purpose by its creators, and ROB is sort of like its concience it has developed and wants to mess up the experiment before it can produce evil results. I would favor ROB being good, instead of evil, perhaps trying to produce a different result that will end up doing good than if the simulation ran to completion on its present course. However, that being said, if ROB is a computer virus, and based on logic and programable, and is expending energy to maintain the RDF, scientists studying that might find a way to..either communicate with it, grab its attention, or annoy it. I believe that enabeling some communication with it, even though we won't understand it completly, would produce some interesting stories.

Fibeo, I had previously read your story and just re-read it. By the way it is fine to plug :) When I read it the first time I thought that it really did not fit in with the rest of the stories since it involved time travel. In the context of a simulation, that would mean more than one running at one time, all on different timelines, and being able to hop between them. Maybe ROB is trans-simulation and could have helped this, but I really don't see how anyone in a simulation could get the supercomputer running it to re-set it to a prior time point and insert someone from a future point. It was an interesting story however and I did enjoy reading it.

Robotech, "magic" is a nice simple explanation to explain the unexplainable, but mankind strives for answers, it seeks to understand, and predict and ultimately control those things it can not immediately explain. Faced with an unexplainable force that is threatening mankind itself with extintion, mankind will use all resourses at its disposal, spare no espence, bring the greatest scientific minds, changed and unchanged to work on studying and solving the problem. It may be futile, we may never be able to win against the Gods, but it is the nature of mankind to TRY! You mentioned it is unlikly manking could "hack" its way out. That would be one possibility, since mathematics would likly be the same for both us and the supercomputer and ROB which are both based on mathmatics and logic. however, there are possibities for stories regarding that attempt..and could be very interesting. If I was a writer, I might even try writing one, but who knows...I might anyways.

Back to JonBuck. The link was to an article about people thinking something and it becoming real. Much too powerful, sort of like...writers!
-- [[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]] 00:39, 7 July 2010 (UTC)

:Okay. I'm going to clarify some concepts here.
:The Singularity I'm referring to is the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity Technological_singularity] . Nothing to do with gravity. A [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posthuman further entry on posthumanism] , and its close relation, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhumanist Transhumanist]. By Planck-level I mean, basically, the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planck_units smallest length in the universe] . Everything down to those levels is "simulated".
:Moving on, the kind of questions you bring up I actually don't want to deal with. The reason I'm using the ROB acronym in the first place is to avoid overtly religious connotations. I realize that they're very important, but it's otherwise such a contentious issue in the real world. I really don't want to see any "communicating with ROB" stories.
:Post-Singularity intelligences are by nature inscrutable (I've seen Stross refer to them as "Weakly Godlike Entities" in his books). At this point ROB has switched to a "salvage mode" by making direct changes to the "simulation" in the form of alleviating energy crises (a huge concern of mine at the time I wrote most of my stories in this setting) and climate change.
:''Accelerando'' is actually [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerando_%28book%29 available for free].
: -- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 02:27, 7 July 2010 (UTC)

::Thanks for the reply Jonbuck, the links were very helpful and I have a clearer idea what you are talking about now. It is going to take me a while to read all the stories.
::I used religious words to describe ideas simply that are familiar but did not mean in any way to be controversial.
::I will try over the next few weeks to put together a short story within your constraints, and if it exceeds your limits we can just change it. I plan to make one assumption, and that is that a simulation is defined by rules set for it that need to be obeyed for it to continue running. ROB changing the speed of light in the simulation for example would be such a fundamental change in everything that it would break the entire simulation, i.e. crash the program. ROB can only work within the rules set for the simulation, agreed?
:: -- [[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]] 02:12, 8 July 2010 (UTC)

:::Major changes in underlying physical constants would probably be ill advised, even for ROB. :) At this point the simulation is being salvaged to prevent social chaos, death, and extinction of the people inside it.
:::There's a novel out that has some very similar ideas and influenced a lot of how I set up this setting: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwinia_%28novel%29 ''Darwinia'' by Robert Wilson] .
::: -- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 02:22, 8 July 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the reply JonBuck, I can work with that, and will post something in a few weeks for your feedback.
-- [[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]] 00:45, 9 July 2010 (UTC)

== About ('''2004''') '''''Victory Starts Here''''' ==

OK, JonBuck, I lied and posted the story in just 2 days. I could not stop thinking about it. I got as far as I could. Could you please read it and then tell me the results of each of the experiments before I can continue in the next one? Thanks!
[[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]] 00:17, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

:After the "server crash" of 2011; the original story [[User:Enphilistor|Victory Starts Here]] (by [[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]] ) is now avalaible (in a very crude, text only format) in the Talk Page of it´s creator: [[User_talk:Enphilistor| Victory Starts Here]]
: -- [[User:Argamis|Argamis]] 13:00, 31 January 2011 (UTC)

Well, I think I will just have to decide for myself how the experiments turn out and just hope you approve. One of my goals in the stories I plan to write is to explain "scientifically" all the effects you have going on here are consistent with all universal laws. If you are running a program, you can't change the code of the program while it is running. You can change the code but only by stoping the program from running and recompiling it. So anything ROB is doing has to be done inside the simulation following the rules of the simulation (under the premise of the stories I plan to write). It is really not going to be easy for the scientists(i.e. me) to explain the changes to the past records, or why they start off only being change a few years back, then all the way back to the day someone was born, and undoing history such as marriages. And remember, I can't have ROB using "magic", ROB is in the simulation and has to be constrained to its rules. Because of this constraint, ROB needs a "body" someplace and a supply of "energy" from somewhere, to direct and power all these changes. I hope you enjoy my next story, that should be entiteld something like "Victory Continues", where Paul has to cope with being a female pig, and the scientists recieve some confusing results on the origin of the signals they record.
-- [[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]] 22:27, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

:Not really. If ROB is outside of the simulation, there's nothing to stop it from pausing the simulation and reworking the fabric of it as necessary. It's like pausing the Sims and placing new walls or whatever. As far as the Sim-people are concerned, those walls might as well as have always been there, even if we (the players) know better. ROB is not inside the simulation, ROB is the player(s) outside the simulation. In no sense does ROB need to obey any rules within the simulation, nor does it need act within the laws of the simulation to change the simulation. By definition anything ROB does is going to be 'magic' because turning people into furries, or editing history, isn't something that's allowed within physical laws. Most of the transformations directly violate the law of the conservation of mass and energy, for example.
:I don't mean to rain on your parade, and I'm clearly not Mr Buck (who might disagree with my explanation), but it seems like you're not quite getting the setting, as I understand it. Hope that helps.
: -- [[User:Honeymane|Honeymane]] 07:52, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

::Got it in one, Honeymane. -- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 18:30, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

JonBuck said, Major changes in underlying physical constants would probably be ill advised, even for ROB. :)

In addition, since ROB hates paradoxes, and will go to such extremes as making sure each child will have both a biological father and a mother and never 2 fathers or 2 mothers, following the rule of conservation in energy and mass is necessary to avoid such paradoxes on an even more fundamental level and in any case easily achieved. If you read my story, that exact experiment has been set up to measure this. Since it is so easy to maintain mass and energy balance, which you will see in the next story, there is no reason to violate this universal law. Imagine the effect on the simulation if you try to break this rule either while it is running or "pausing" it. A calculation is in the process of being made on an object between it and every other object in the universe. In the middle of the calculation a zero is entered (E = mC^2, so if you are going to, C is either zero, which crashes the program and is not what JonBuck said, or as m goes to zero, then c goes to infinity which also changes the velocity of light constant which JobBuck said would not happen). Some calculations have already been performed and other calculations in progress have end up with a divisor of zero. You crash the program when you restart it, as the zero divisor propagates in all the calculations throughout the universe.

In any case, mankind will try and study these effects, and my stories will be mostly concerned with these attempts. However, when I say all laws have to be obeyed, that does not mean all laws that humans know about, it can include new ones. It may be that the results of the experiments will lead them to conclude that something is breaking the laws of the universe because they don't understand them all, but ROB will know what it is doing. I imagine it like this. The main computer can't use its antiviral programming to stop ROB as long as ROB is hiding in the simulation and following the rules in the simulation, but if ROB breaks the rules, and crashes it, he becomes exposed with no place to hide and gets zaped. You will see that in the next story, that ROB is still just as powerful to the same "magic" as it can is now, and still be consistent with all stories that have happened, and the setting JonBuck has set up. JonBuck has not really explained the interaction between the main computer and the virus or any protections or why they are not working. In any case, it doesn't matter what i think, since the stories I plan don't mention this at all, they will be consistent with either ROB being inside or outside the simulation, only what the beings in the simulation measure is in the stories. Just trust me, the story will be interesting and fun, and if JonBuck says no to some result after he reads it, I will change it. Fair?
-- [[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]] 01:54, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

:I haven't had time to read your story yet. Frankly, reading your comments here I'm getting a little antsy over what exactly the impact it would have on the overall setting. I think you're over-analyzing the setting, frankly. You're asking questions about it that I really can't answer.
:Also, use colons in front of your paragraphs to make them indent and create a "nested" topic. And put a blank line between paragraphs. Thanks.
: -- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 02:21, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

::For JonBuck I had intentionally not been using indents so that my comments would be totally left justified and everyone the replies for everyone else indented, make it easier in my view to keep things organized. But if you prefer indents, I am easy.
::I had assumed that you had already read the story. It would be good for me to get some feedback on that since none of the things we discuss here are really in it, but may impact it.
:: -- [[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]] 02:57, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

:I think you're confusing the 'players' here. First, there's the computer that all the "real" characters (ie the characters in the story) exist in. ROB 1 is likely someone running the computer, perhaps for anthropological reason, perhaps because they're bored. ROB 2 is unrelated to ROB 1, but for one reason or another, has managed to add a virus program to ROB 1's simulation, causing problems. There are at least 2 viruses that JonBuck has discussed; one that changes gender, and one that changes people into furries, we could, however, imagine that there may have been other viruses in the past, that eventually ROB 1 removed. For example, Atlantis might have been real, and so might have the Greek/etc gods. Atlantians were gifted technology beyond what they should have, and ROB 1 deleted the island to save the program, ROB might have also deleted the Gods, for whatever reason, etc. I'm just speculating here. Now, either ROB can't remove the virus like it did the other problems, or it realized that altering reality was screwing with the program's purpose (such as anthropological study) So rather than delete the TG or TF viruses, ROB 1 created a program to try and mitigate the virus's effects. This program is what causes the history editing (etc).
:Both these viruses exist within the programing of the Computer, but not on a level that would appear to anyone in the program. It's important to remember that time doesn't necessarily pass like it does within the computer; the virus could get it's work done in a nanosecond. Everything else, the sickness, the slow change, all these might be part of the mitigation program's efforts to prevent anyone from changing in public, and to change so suddenly they lose their minds, nor without warning. But there's no reason to think that this computer virus is operating through something like an actual virus, or that the changes are visible on a cell level before the change occurs, even in those showing the signs of the change.
:But again, this is just me talking, not Buck. But I do strongly suggest you hold off writing too much more until Jon has a chance to review your story, or else you might very well find yourself writing something based on ideas that JonBuck doesn't like/want in his setting.
: -- [[User:Honeymane|Honeymane]] 04:24, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

:: For Honeymane It is really difficult to hit a moving target. I have not seen in any of the stories and discussions or JonBuck's guidlines about prior activity of ROB. As for ROB1, ROB2, ....ROBN, only one master computer has been mentioned and only one ROB virus. In my understanding, the main comupter has created a SIMULATION. The main computer is infected with a much smaller and more limited "few lines of code" virus, that the beings on one planet in the SIMULATION call the random omnipotent being, but this being is only omnipotent comparted to us, not compared to the main computer. I do not see ROB having the same power to shut down the simulation, pause it, change the rules in it or perform any of the jobs the main computer does.
:: -- [[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]] 04:24, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

:I see ROB as much more limited. It needs to avoid detection of the antiviral programs, it can't attract their attention, it needs to work by stealth, it is a virus after all, it can't do things that say, "here I am!". And this all follows from things JonBuck has indicated. If he wants to say ROB = main computer in all powers, then well, fine, but he has not done so. He has not defined the motives of ROB or the main computer. when asked, he has said, " I dunno". Given that void, since I need to write in that setting, I find myself creating possible motives for them in my mind.
:It makes no difference to the stories I plan to write, but it helps me limiting ROB to viral powers and behaviors, not mainfraim abilities. A virus has 2 main goals, to keep itself alive and to reproduce itself. ROB may or may not have the second goal, but it will have the first. While doing this in any enviornment, it may cause side effects. Imagine ROB as a biological virus, and a living cell as the simulation that is growing inside a body that is the mainframe. At one time ROB was outside the cell, in the body (mainframe) where lots of antibodies (antiviral programs) were hunting for it. By entering the cell, it is now hidden from the body's defenses. However, if the cell gets sick or dies(ROB crashes the cell simulation) before ROB has either left the cell or reached a state of reproduction where that is desireable, then the body will just devower the cell and grow a new one. So in my scenario, perhaps ROB realized that the purpose of the simulation was about to be achieved, and since ROB is not ready to reproduce, it is messing with the simulation, hyjacking it as a virus hyjacks the DNA of a Cell, to keep the simulation alive longer than it would otherwise, so that it won't reach the conditions for termination, until it can make other copies of itself to infect other simulations. Who knows, maybe with enough copies of itself it can take over the mainfraim. Alternatively, its work at transforming mankind may be the way it is going about reproducing. Alternatively, ROB might have realized the simulation was about to produce a failed reslut which would have terminated the simulation and it is acting to keep itself alive by preventing failure conditions.
:In any case it makes no difference to the stories I plan to write, JonBuck had declined to actually be clear on this, and it really does not matter. The beings in the simulations don't know this, and it is difficult to think of any way they could ever find out. Well actually I could, because I am like that. One way would be if ROB tells them, and since Jonbuck said no comunication with ROB, that won't happen. Another if the mainfram sends a COR (Correcting Omnipotent Being) into the simulation (...and God sent his only begotten son...that type of idea) and told people.
:The second story is half done, and I plan to continue writing it since I have it all layed out in my mind. Hopefully Jonbuck will read the first story and give some feedback before I finish, but I believe he will approve of both stories in any case. And if not, I will change them.
: -- [[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]] 04:24, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

:: *puts on peacemaker and teacher hats*
:: From what I can tell you're looking for an explicit statement of something that has been implicit in the setting design since the start...
:: Where the Solar System once sat is now a cloud of what you could call "Computronium". Inside this computer are many, many simulations. Whether these simulations are the creation of a separate physical being or the uploaded minds of people is a moot point - we'll never see the "real world". (btw, ROB could actually be an AI that was once a person...)
:: The stories all take place inside one of these simulations that has picked up a couple of viruses somewhere. One of them has been around since at least the late 70's (IIRC, this is mentioned in one of Jon's stories) and the other didn't appear until 1987. The one that showed up in 1987 - the "furry virus" - is newer and initially ROB had tried to contain it using the "Perception Filter". When it somewhat "merged" with the TG virus the simulation got a lot more unstable and ROB had to start including things in its "containment" to help combat that instability. That is the "history revision" stuff. It also is the cause of the changes to married couples with children - because it was seeing potential causes of instability (no more mother/father) and fixing it as it could.
:: There is no "ROB" actually in the simulation - think about the game "The SIMS"... In that game you are the ROB - the creator and maintainer of the simulation. And you can "Pause" the simulation, make changes and restart it. In this case at least the entirety of the solar system is part of the simulation and every time ROB has to make a change it "pauses" the simulation, makes the changes and then hits the "normal speed" button. Now... there might be some people in the world that are actually from outside the sim, but they'd never make themselves known - and they could, probably, act like the ROB and remove any evidence of themselves (outside of memories) from the sim.
:: -- [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] 04:21, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

::: I think a lot of the problems here is a misunderstanding of the source material I'm drawing inspiration for this setting from. Honeymane and ShadowWolf have both described things well. (Though I'm going to bump the TG virus back a few more centuries). A few points.
:::: * ROB exists outside the simulation. Other ROBs are not important. The Virus is not a ROB. However, ROB isn't really a physical being either, as SW describes.
:::: * The Virus originates outside the simulation. Who and what originally made it is a moot point.
:::: * The intent of said "virus" (the term only fits loosely) is to throw a monkeywrench into ROB's simulation of our universe. The reason why it hasn't been contained is that it was created by a slightly more advanced post-Singularity Mind than ROB. Since ROB can't contain it, ROB can only mitigate.
:::: * Essentially, the two virii are intended to cause social chaos via random transformations. It doesn't exist to propagate itself to other simulations. In the first case, a "quarantine" of sorts was created via modifying the present records of those TGed to reflect their new gender. If it was true history editing neither the person transformed nor the people who knew them would remember what they'd been. What ROB is changing are just the present physical objects.
:::Honestly, go read Part 2 of Accelerando. It was originally started as short stories, so you can pick it up there. That's where a lot of the concepts for Paradise started.
::: -- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 05:13, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

OK, it seems terminology is messing me up. I was under the apparently mistaken belief that ROB was the virus, and the Mainfraim running the simulation(s). I believed this because the virus was random and chainging someone to a furry is sort of mildy omnipotent. Yes, I fully agree that if ROB = Mainfraim(or AI who might have once been human) then ROB must definatly outside the simulation. My comments were consering only the virus(es) that are causing the transgender/furry transformations.
Let me call the form that can do either one or the other or both, the Random Omnipotent Virus, ROV for short so there will be no misunderstandings. I can see ROB stoping the simulation and making corections, eliminating divisions by zero and all that. However, ROV should not have those abilities, being just a lowly virus, compared to ROB. The stories I wish to write constrain ROV to using the same old laws that existed in 1987, and prior to that if there was the TG virus. The universe we live in now was supposed to be identical to that one until 1987, I would like that ROV should be handicaped a little by the rules ROB created for the simulation. A simulation is to test SOMETHING, and if you start changing the rules (ie laws of nature) your results are just not going to simulate the conditions you wanted to in the real world, where you don't have the power to change the laws of nature.
The experiments the humans are setting up in my first story will indicate only the effects being caused by ROV. If ROV is outside or inside the simulation does not really matter, but if ROV can behave just like ROB, then that study is just not going to produce anything interesting either scientifically, or plot wise. Such violations of the laws of nature might just scream at them "There really must be a god involved." and we never want them to know or suspect ROB or the true nature of ROV. To have a scientific study, I would like ROV to follow the laws of the universe, for any of the reasons described here and in prior posts. I will work out some reasons that make sense to the humans for all things happening regarding the transformations, to keep them studying and not just throw up their hands in frustration, if that is ok.
-- [[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]]

== Count of Changed in 1997 ==

Hello! I'm new here, but I really like this setting and read probably most of the stories. I even made my own table in Excel to draw the changing numbers as a graphic (Also for my hometown to get a grip on the numbers). And there I noticed something:

Maybe I just missed a story or paragraph where it is explained, but shouldn't there be 1024 Changed in 1997 instead of 1028? Where do the additional 4 Furries come from? I know this is just minor, but the error is kept through the following years till the end and all the numbers are wrong (It doesn't however change the fact that 2020 is the last year).

It's not so important, but it's been bugging me since I noticed it. -- [[User:TigeR|TigeR]] 15:53, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

:Check out the [[Paradise (Setting)]] page. It has all the numbers. -- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 02:16, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

:: Jon, you do have a +4 in 1997 over a strict doubling. This is what he was pointing out and asking questions about. -- [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] 02:18, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

::: And fixed! -- [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] 02:37, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

::: This error went a heck of a lot deeper and its possible that the skew-factor introduced in 1997 effected the percentages as time went into the future - however... I fixed this by hand and then verified the figures against a program that output every power of two from zero to the 33rd. As it stands this table now has correct figures for the furry population and one can only assume that the historical figures for population are correct and the projection fits the curve correctly. -- [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] 02:55, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

== Paradise:The Soundtrack ==

Not sure about anyone else, but I find music to be a major inspiration.. Well of course it

is... the song "Strangers by Yoko Kanno" got this series off the ground did it not?

So I decided to put together a soundtrack, it's not available for download because I own

none of these songs... But if you happen to have them, you can arrange them in your iPod

Playlist, if you want.. I mean I'm not forcing ya, it's just a possibility.

: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0b58V573l8 '''Yoko Kanno''' - Strangers -_Wolf's Rain - Strangers by Sori Smile-_ ] <- { The begining of ALL of this... }

: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IroHea5FOj8 '''Bliss 66''' - Not Quite Paradise ] <- {''This song pretty much hits the entire series on the head... (It's from the ending of [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb2aMjprmdo Titan A.E.], damn good movie, do see it sometime)''}

:[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqds0B_meys '''Three Days Grace''' - Animal I Have Become]

:[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-scESgTnoUM '''Goo Goo Dolls''' - Iris]

: '''Mighty Bosstones''' - Impression That I Get

: '''Lee Brotherton''' - Dream Of An Asbolution

: '''Cash Cash''' - Speak With Your Heart

: '''Eminem''' - Beautiful

: '''Shania Twain''' - Man I Feel Like A Woman

: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE9zpOyNDoA '''Chip Tha Ripper''' - SLAB Freestyle -_What Are You Inside? - Furries In A Blender_- ] <- { ''Joke YouTube Entry'' }

: '''Tears For Fears''' - Everybody Wants To Rule The World

: '''Foo Fighters''' - The Pretender

and finally:

: '''John Mayer''' - Waiting On The World To Change

: %'''Crush 40'''% - %Is It You?% -_%http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFyPlBkqXR0%-_ <- {%''Is it you? Is it me? Is it everything we're meant to be? Is it here? Is it now? That only we can feel somehow''%}
I think I forgot some, but yeah, definitely these. - [[User:Hawl|Hawl]] (1/10/11, 1:55 PM)

: The new ''metadata format'' for the songlist is: %'''Artist'''% - %Songtitle% -_%YTtitle%-_ <- {%''comment''%}

::[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8IujL8_sMI '''Stanfour''' - For All Lovers] <- { ''My Favorite ; "...For all the Changeds, and Believers..."'' }

::[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4w3lPYoBX8 '''Stanfour''' - Everything Has Changed]

::[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mjlM_RnsVE '''Skillet''' - Monster]

::[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-makfpBrSQ '''Three Days Grace''' - Never too late]

: -- [[User:Argamis|Argamis]] 13:50, 03 February 2011 (UTC)

::"It's the new mother nature taking over
::It's the new splendid lady come to call
::It's the new mother nature taking over
::She's getting us all
::She's getting us all"
::—[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJbFVJvRqOQ '''The Guess Who'''] - No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature

::And then there's [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sgycukafqQ '''Linkin Park'' - What I've Done] from my Melton's Eleven stories…

::—[[User:Robotech Master|Robotech Master]] 06:51, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

== I Need a Date ==

Not that kind... I'd like the exact date of Tall Tales. Or maybe even a compilation of important events and when they happened. I don't mean the year, but the actual days. I hate sounding important like this, so please just try to roll with this and help. The important thing for me was Tall Tales. When did the convention take place? I've looked through this page, the story, and several related stories, but it never really mentioned a date, so if somebody knows, and they could get back to me on this, that would be great. Thanks. [[User:Atapari|Atapari]] 01:04, 28 February 2011 (UTC)

:If I was going to pin down an actual ''date'', I'd put it at Veteran's Day weekend. A lot of cons take place over a long weekend. As for the exact sequence of events, I'll have to reread the story. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 02:25, 28 February 2011 (UTC)

:It's actually a little hard to pin down the date. As I pointed out in the "Continuity Snarl" entry on [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Paradise the Paradise TVTropes page], it's strongly implied to take place in October (a character in Jetfire's "Clearing the Air" complains about its effects in a scene set on October 22nd, which is presumably a week or so after the con so those effects have had time to be felt), but Nikon's "Changing Perspectives" (which takes place concurrently with "Tall Tales") says it's set in November. Of course, neither of those people are JonBuck, who wrote the original story and gatekeeps the continuity, but neither of them is necessarily more valid than the other—though if we go by what Jon says above, Veteran's Day is in November. —[[User:Robotech Master|Robotech Master]] 03:07, 28 February 2011 (UTC)

Thanks a bunch, both of you. This'll help me finish my story. (By the way, I love all your stories. My own are sort of pathetic, but I aspire to be as good a writer as you.) [wow, that was corny.][[User:Atapari|Atapari]] 23:41, 28 February 2011 (UTC)

It's not too corny, Atapari, MatthiasRat is like my personal hero... Of course so is Robert Hallman, but for completely different reasons. Btw, if you're reading this Matty. Then you've earned this bad Sonata Artica/Winds Of Change reference. Diiiiiiiiiiiid you ever knooooow that you're my hero! And everything I would like to beeeeee. Cause you are the wiiiiiind beneath my wiiiiiiiiiiiings! See it's funny cause he inspired me with a TF story and I called him the wind beneath my wings... And... there's that other series... and... yeah I'll just shut up now. [[User:Hawl|Hawl]] 7:40, 3/5/2011 (UTC)

Update: I can say for sure that it was in October. I can't believe I missed this before: "Most of the furs were like Jerome and his girlfriend, only having changed two months ago."[[User:Atapari|Atapari]] 04:13, 1 March 2011 (UTC)

== Fanart Of The Changed ==

I just comissioned, as far as I know, the first ever Paradise Fanart. The art is Pokemon themed (Cause Pokemon Black's release is just around the corner), but the picture is of Iris (formely Cale) and Gabriel, the characters from my upcoming story. I'm writing a story to go along with the picture. Will post a link to it as soon as its done. The non-fan service story about them is almost finished. Just needs a few more paragraphs and revisions. It's part 1 in a series. This is exciting for me, I've never actually finished a story before... Well outside of one Paradise story I wrote a few months ago and never posted.... But I never submitted that to anywhere outside of furaffinity cause I was personally ashamed of it. Once again I'd like to give a shoutout to... whoever the real life Robert Hallman is, Charles Matthias, and Jon Buck for encouraging me to return to story writing and the furry fandom. (If you wanna read what I have so far of what I wrote, just type "Weird Girly Boy" in the search engine) - [[User:Hawl|Hawl]], 08:00, 3/5/2011, (UTC)

The Art's done, the story is awaiting an ending. Due to the Pokemon Crossover Nature, this story is incredibly non-cannon (Think Cascade Failure or The Future Is Paradise) and as a result never happened. These characters are from an upcoming series called "Paradisian Perspectives" which is a Paradise Mini-Series. The one in the front is "Gabriel Locke" and the one in the back is "Iris Vinole", though she was born "Cale Vinole" (TG'd)
I'll add them to the cast page when I finish "A Normal Type Of Day". I'd like to note that Iris, like most TG-Changed does not usually wear feminine clothing (and continues not to after Tall Tales, for comfort reasons) the sundress is merely something the artist decided to add though it is referenced in the story. I would like to repeat, POKEMON DO NOT EXIST IN PARADISE! THIS STORY ISN'T CANNON!
http://undead-romance.furaffinity.net/view/5416625/ - Drawn by a close personal friend, comissioned by me. (Story coming before the weekend ends) [[User:Hawl|Hawl]], 5:53PM, 3/17/2011 (EST)

== Shed vs Cut Fur ==

One of the lines in one of [[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat's]] stories gave me an idea for one of my own. The shared content is very small (an offhand line, never again mentioned in one, a small plot point with little impact on the plot in the other) and I'm asking him for permission now, but I also want to make sure that what I am thinking of is possible in the Paradise universe. I know that shedding fur is always a problem with the Changed, but I have also seen scenes (like where [[User:Eirik|Eiric's]] Dr. Clay sends some fur—deliberately cut—to be tested, and the results indicate normal human hair. Is this something that has been established in the world, or can I have fur cut from one of my Changed appear to be animal fur to the non-Changed? Thanks! - [[User:RunsWithFurs|Runs]][[User talk:RunsWithFurs|With]][[:Category:RunsWithFurs|Furs]] 09:58, 13 March 2011 (UTC)

:I've never really nailed down the rules here, but it's reasonable to assume the RDF isn't completely consistent. It's the same way with footprints. A lot depends on context, some condition that shed fur ''needs'' to be hidden. It's really dependent on what your story requires, when it comes down to it. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 01:58, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

::Thank you for the clarification; I thought that it would be something like that. I will be using visible fur for my story, then; what I am thinking of is not strictly ''necessary'', but I do think that it will add a bit of depth to the character. - [[User:RunsWithFurs|Runs]][[User talk:RunsWithFurs|With]][[:Category:RunsWithFurs|Furs]] 05:58, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

== Question on the time period ==

I was reading through the universe rules, and noticed (again, though this is the first time I remembered to follow up) that you ask us to submit any stories that take place pre-2001 to you. I am currently intending to set my story in that time period—somewhere in the mid/late 1990's—and am wondering how you would like us to send stories to you, once I get something written. Though I could set it later, I want my characters to be rather isolated, and, while the setting lends itself well to geographic isolation, low overall numbers would also be nice. Finally, I just wanted to make sure that it was all right for me to write a Paradise story; I realized that I never actually asked. Sorry! - [[User:RunsWithFurs|Runs]][[User talk:RunsWithFurs|With]][[:Category:RunsWithFurs|Furs]] 06:06, 15 March 2011 (UTC)

:Well, nobody has to ask me if they can write a Paradise story. Just tell me what your overall plans are. You don't have to submit the whole story to me first--I tend not to get to them. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 06:46, 15 March 2011 (UTC)

::Thank you. I'll probably wait a bit longer before saying anything, as my outline is not quite finalized yet. Main points, though: the main character visits relative's farm in early August. Change strikes while still on farm; aunt revealed to have previously changed. Main character stays with relative to get used to new form (neither knows of the network). As I said, this could be placed at practically any point on the timeline, but I find it seems to "click" better earlier. I apoligize if this is not the best way to run it by you, and if it is not enough information. I would be happy to give you a more in-depth outline, through whatever method you want, once it settles. Thanks again for putting up with me! - [[User:RunsWithFurs|Runs]][[User talk:RunsWithFurs|With]][[:Category:RunsWithFurs|Furs]] 23:48, 15 March 2011 (UTC)

==Aliens?==
:Would any intelligent beings elsewhere in the universe be affected by the change eventually? Of course, the fractal thing does make it so that it would be a LOOOOONG time after the Earth changes finish... [[User:Maine Cat|Maine Cat]] 21:07, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

::The answer is yes, they would. But I don't plan on introducing any aliens into this setting for the foreseeable future. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 16:36, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

== It's The Most Transformational Time, Of The Year! ==

August 16th? How we all feeling today? I'm healthy as a horse sadly, no... not a Healthy Horse, a healthy human. *looks in his boxers* Male too....

Oh well.. *tucks a Victoria's Secret bag back into the closet*

Maybe next year :P

== The Blind and the RDF ==

So I was thinking about the change and how it would affect the disabled and such, and through the thoughts, I came to a realization... the blind may be able to naturally pierce the veil somewhat! Two factors come into this. First, a blind man is BLIND. The visual disguise of the RDF that makes a person look like they always looked has NO EFFECT, a blind person relying on touch. Second, it's generally said of the blind (and deaf) that with one sense out of comission, the other four senses become more acute and sensitive to make up for it, meaning they have more of a chance of feeling the hidden fur or claws. Now admittedly, people don't touch each other as much as they see each other unless they're shaking hands or something, but this COULD be an interesting hook for a story, don't you think?--[[User:Chessrook44|Chessrook44]] 01:18, 23 August 2011 (UTC)

User:Chessrook44/Unforseen Reactions

2011-08-30T19:29:01Z

Chessrook44:

== Lister's Tales 2: Unforseen Reactions ==

'''September 7th, 2005'''

“Ak… essshTODAY IS” *click* “Blasted alarm…”

Grumbling, my hand sliding off the alarm clock and looking at the time, I sat up and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, yawning widely. Glancing down at myself, I got up, climbed down the ladder of my bed, and headed into the bathroom with my clothes to freshen up, my tail flicking about behind me.

It had been three weeks since Change Day, when I and about a hundred thousand other people around the world had changed into strange hybrids of human and animal. And yet despite that, nobody who hadn’t changed was any wiser thanks to the Veil, as it was informally known, that disguised how we felt, looked, and sounded to those that had not changed. It had been two weeks since I had learned about the rest of the Changed in the Network, and in that time I had been learning as much as I could.

As I relieved myself, I glanced down at my now-female body and again thanked ROB (As I heard some people refer to whatever was controlling the change) for granting me a female body. I wasn’t a transsexual, mind you, but the stories I’d heard about the “gymnastics” others had to perform after changing made me glad I could just sit down and avoid all those problems. A silly reason, perhaps, but I’d take it where I could get it before the Visitor in Red came sometime in the future. And I was NOT looking forward to that.

I then proceeded to tug on my clothes, briefs under jeans, neither pulled up all the way in the back due to my tail. I’d read up on the various tips and instructions for how to modify pants for the various kinds of tails out there, from short to long, fluffy to bare, thin to fat, but I couldn’t use any of them. I was still in high school and living with my parents, and they got on my case for the smallest hole in my knee. As such, I just dealt with leaving it a bit low.

The shirt went on next, and as was common, I shivered a bit as the fabric rubbed over the front of my chest. I had been a guy before the change and the rest of the world still saw me as a guy despite my assets, so I ended up having ill-fitting clothes. And despite what other TG on the boards would say, there was no way in heaven or hell I was going to wear a bra and panties while I still appeared a guy. I may have been taking the change better than most other TG, but I still had some masculinity. And wearing my men’s clothes helped me feel better inwardly. Plus, again, it solved a laundry issue.

After dressing up I walked into the kitchen and put a pop-tart in the toaster oven while I started feeding the cat, again thankful we had him. While the Veil hid how I looked, it didn’t hide what I left behind, and shed fur and odd smells WOULD be difficult to explain were it not for the fact that we had a grey and white cat (close enough to two out of three of my fur colors to let some of them slide) and the fact that my parents have been telling me my room smelled for years now. (Hey, it didn’t smell to me. I just kept it closed up whenever it wasn’t summer and overheating. I’ll just keep saying it doesn’t smell and nobody’s the wiser.). There were some other things I still had to watch out for, like my reddish fur if it fell anywhere or the fact I was taking shorter showers now, along with possible claw marks or other things, but again, I’d take what relief I could where I could find it. So far nobody had suspected anything.

Eventually, an hour later, the bus arrived, and I spent the next two hours on the bus with my mind wandering, tail curled into my lap as I was wont to do while sitting. I lived on the south coast of Long Island, but I went to an alternative school on the north coast for personal reasons and loved it there, the closeness of the students and faculty feeling like another family… which meant more difficulties trying to do the same things I always did. I couldn’t gallop through the halls anymore for example (I had odd habits, but I loved my strangeness) but I hoped they’d be too distracted by the silence to say anything.

I sighed as I thought of that, glancing down at my paws. Despite the years of changes, nobody had even tried to make shoes for furs. They saw no need when a majority of the Changed preferred to go barepaw or barehoof anyway, and the shoe field stopped any questions of why they were walking through the snow without worry of frostbite. Me, however, I just wanted to protect my paws from getting dirty or gum getting in my fur. I had seen a hopeful post from someone saying “We are looking into it”, but I had heard nothing more from them since.

Finally we arrived at the school and I stepped off the bus, looking over the small building. I had hopes that maybe one of the teachers or students had changed, and my mind went crazy with what I would do if one of them was changed. I walked in to the loungish area to wait for first period, sitting down and looking around. I was one of the earliest, as usual, and others would be in soon. I wondered if-

“OH MY GOD!”

My head whirled around at the voice. My first thought was “Did someone change?” but when I saw Jessie, another student and still human, I realized that wasn’t it. She was staring at me with pure shock and disbelief on her face. I blinked, feeling a little nervous. She couldn’t see me, could she? I’m wearing the same clothes, nothing is showing, I’m wearing my shoes, what could it be?

My answer came when she lifted an arm, pointed a finger directly at me, and cried out, “You got a NEW HAT!”

I exhaled and chuckled. Ah yes, that. My old hat I had been wearing for 11 years straight without fail, but due to extenuating circumstances had to retire it over the summer and get a new one. Considering how that hat sometimes seemed as much a part of me as feathers on a duck, the reaction made sense. “Yeah, new hat. Had to retire the old one,” I said, as my mind started thinking, ''This is going to be a fun year.''

The rest of the day proceeded as a day at school would usually go, barring the occasional shocked exclamation that I had changed my hat. Each time it happened, I rubbed my hat and inwardly grumbled about my ears folded up underneath it. Someday they’ll make hats for us furs, I thought, and when that day comes I’ll be… oh, maybe third in line. The hat thing, thankfully, added as a sort of distraction and nobody even noticed that some of my other oddities had let up.

Around lunch and after I got my daily pizza I took my laptop (Which the school thoughtfully provided us while we were there) and went online to check up on the two Changed forums I had joined. I sat with my back against a wall to make sure nobody looked, but nonetheless I kept a wary ear out for anyone coming up. The main site for the overall Changed Network was hopping with activity as usual, and we’d even found another couple changed in the last couple days with the start of school.

The NYChanged forum, however, remained silent and dead. Though NYC was one of the largest cities in the US, there didn’t seem to be enough Changed to really make it that active. Only myself, Eli the rabbit, and about a dozen others counted ourselves as changed in NYC and Long Island and posted on the boards, but considering the way the Change seemed to be spreading it made sense. There was only a little over 250 thousand of us at current estimation, and most seemed to be concentrated in the northern central US. Ah well, we’d get more in the coming years.

The rest of the day went uneventfully. I went to my classes, rode the bus home, had dinner, tucked some red hairs behind the couch, went on the IRC, and went to bed. A fairly dull day for one of the only furred people on Long Island, but it went well all things considered. I’m sure I’d have plenty of other problems in the future.

'''October 19th, 2005'''

Today was not going to be a fun day. Damn this change!

The school I was in never had a gym class, but instead went on physical trips once a month. I even enjoyed some of them, and at first didn’t think there would be any problems. Until they announced this trip: A brunch at Ihop, followed by bowling.

Normally I’d enjoy this, as I like bowling, but there was just one problem. The Shoe Field. Shoes just disappeared off my feet when I put them on, and despite keeping my claws trimmed they occasionally tapped on the ground or caught on carpets. This was going to be a challenge.

And deciding to be a bit more cruel, the Red Visitor had decided to stop by today and I was not in a good mood. And apparently I wasn’t doing a very good job of hiding it.

“Les, you alright?” I looked up and across the table at Stan, a bit of bacon hanging out of my mouth. “You’ve been acting kinda weird lately.”

I pulled the bacon in and nodded as I chewed, giving a smirk. “What, you mean I’m not normally weird?” I said with a chuckle, trying to play it off.

“Nah man,” Stan replied. “I mean you haven’t even been talking to anyone lately. Something eating you up?”

I shook my head. “No no, I’m fine. Been feeling a bit cruddy lately but it’s nothing. I’ll be fine, though I’ll probably suck once we start playing.”

Stan chuckled. “Not as badly as I will.” I smirked as I continued to eat my food. Oh Stan, you have no idea…

----

…and I have no idea how I’m going to bowl, I thought as we walked into the bowling alley. My ears pushed against my hat as they tried to flatten, both in nervous anticipation and in reaction to the constant echoing crashes of the other bowlers. After picking our lanes and a brief discussion of how many games we’d play and how we’d be doing everything from the teachers I headed up to get my shoes (fairly pointlessly for me I thought at first) only to get a very pleasant surprise.

As I approached the counter where two workers were handing out the shoes, I saw one had stopped and was staring at me with a shocked look on his muzzle. Yes muzzle, as he was a changed raccoon! A new one it seemed, considering the stare. Planting a smile on my face I got into the line for him and tried to motion for him to stop staring. It didn’t work too well however as he kept staring at me when he wasn’t helping someone else. When I finally got up to him I muttered, “Stop staring, people will think you’re hitting on me or something.”

His ears folded back as he looked at me. “I… I’m sorry miss I just… oh man, I thought I was going crazy! But you’re actually a-”

I waved my hands at him quickly. “Shshshshsh! Not so loud, alright? Everyone still sees us as guys. Men’s nine and a half please,” I said, a little louder on the last part.

His head tilted as he gave me an odd look, glancing down at my chest. “Men’s?”

I sighed and crossed my arms over my chest, closing my eyes. “Yes, Men’s. Just roll with it, alright? Some of us had a much more drastic change than others. And don’t worry, I’m going to try not to scuff up the lanes with my claws.”

The raccoon nodded and got the shoes, coming back and handing them to me. “Here you are, uh, sir. Oh and,” he leaned in towards me. “pick a ball with slightly larger finger holes. Otherwise you’ll break a claw and be in pain the rest of the day.” He showed be his hand, one of his claws on his fingers showing that he learned that the hard way.

I nodded back and decided to ask another question. “And the paws? Any suggestions there to reduce damage, since these shoes are just going to disappear?”

He gestured at a vending machine nearby. “Use the socks from the vending machine there and try not to get your claws caught. It’ll help a bit.” My reply was to glance down at my own fabric-covered paws, nod in thanks, take the shoes and walk off.

As I was looking through the bowling balls for one that seemed right, Stan came up behind me. “Dude, what were you talking with that guy about?” I winced, remembering Stan had been right behind me.

“Oh I ah, I was asking him some, er… tips for bowling.” God that was a lame excuse, even I didn’t believe it. Stan didn’t either and he tried to get more information out of me, but I brushed him off with the same excuse before grabbing a ball and heading down to the lanes.

The bowling itself went about as well as could be expected. Several times my claws felt like they might have scratched the flooring, a few times the ball arced up as it caught on a claw and slammed on the floor with a resounding and embarrassing BANG, and those problems along with my own inexperience combined to give me a whopping score of 14. Embarrassed, I quickly walked back to the raccoon while the others finished their game, beckoning him to an end of the counter.

“Alright, let me give you the short version,” I said to him. “Yes we’re really animal-people. There’s about 250 thousand of us worldwide about now, some of us are the wrong gender, it’s more or less permanent, we don’t know who or what’s causing it, and everyone else sees us as we were before we changed.”

“But what are we supposed to do?” he asked. “I mean I can’t live like this forever! What do I tell my wife?”

“Tell her what you want, some of us have been living this way for close to 20 years. Look, here’s some sites that should help,” I said, handing him a piece of paper with links to the main Network site and the NYChanged site, explaining them to him. “Listen, we’re all in this together, and there’s more of us every year. I’m sorry I can’t help you more, but it’s the best I can do right now.”

He sighed, his ears splaying out as he looked at the paper. “Right. Thanks for that anyway, I guess. At least now I know I’m not crazy, hmm?” He shook his head. “What’s your name anyway?”

“Lester, but call me LC,” I replied. “We use the initials to let other Changed know that we look like the opposite gender to the UnChanged.”

“So you were really a guy before this happened?” He looked down over me, eyes lingering on my chest. “And those are real?”

I placed a pair of fingers to my temple and sighed. “Yes I was a guy, yes I switched genders, and I’m only 17 so quit staring before your boss sees and gets REALLY wrong ideas, ok?” His eyes snapped back up and he nodded, the faint hint of a blush under his fur. “I gotta get back to the group, ok? Take care, and visit those sites. I mean it, it’ll help you cope a lot.” I waved back at him as I walked back to the group.

The rest of the trip went uneventfully, and I felt relieved that I didn’t have the lowest score of everyone there. Two others got lower scores than me, one at 9 and one got nothing but gutterballs, and that made me feel a bit better. After I got home and ate dinner that evening I logged on to the forums to find that the raccoon (whose name was Steven, it turned out) had already introduced himself and thanked me for finding him. After replying to his posts and giving what extra information I could I logged off and went to bed. Despite my anticipation over how badly the day could have gone, overall it went fairly well. Hopefully the coming days would go even better.
[[Category:Story]][[Category:Paradise]][[Category:Chessrook44]]{{DEFAULTSORT:Unforseen Reactions}}

User:Chessrook44/Unforseen Changes

2011-08-30T19:28:21Z

Chessrook44:

== Lister's Tales 1: Unforseen Changes ==

'''August 14th, 2005'''

“Here you are sir, have a nice day,” I said, handing the card to the customer in front of me before sitting back on the ground.

I was working again that day, much like any other, selling tickets for admission to the beach. Well ok, PUNCHING the tickets, actually. An older, more senior person was in the booth actually selling them. Sure the job barely paid minimum wage, but there weren’t many jobs available to a high-school student just about to enter his senior year. Ah well. Maybe I’d find a job of some sort while at college next year.

With the late-day lull in tourists again, I sat back, my mind once again wandering through the myriad of scenarios, thoughts, and fantastic events that went through my mind. I was a daydreamer, I admit it, and frequently wished one of those amazing scenarios would happen to me. Alas, the laws of physics themselves tended to say a definitive no to it, leaving me nothing more than a dreamer. Maybe the advent of virtual reality, if it was completed sometime in the future, would make it possible. And in the meantime, there was always roleplaying, even if I was new to it…

An hour or two later, and the day was over. Packing up my stuff, I walked over to my bike, letting out a cough as I got there… followed by another cough or two. “Les, you doing alright?” Allen, the cashier asked.

I nodded back. “Yeah, I’m fine. Probably nothing.” Strange… hope I’m not coming down with something.

'''August 16th, 2005'''

Goddangit, why the frick did I have to jinx it? And God was mocking me as well…

For the past two days, I’d been lying in bed or on the couch, with probably the third worst illness I’d ever had. Sure, I wasn’t quite coughing up bile, but I still felt absolutely horrible. My mom tried what she could, but there’s only so much a family member can do when one is sick. Give soup, the occasional kiss on the forehead, and promise of a trip to the doctor if it persists.

Of course, it also had to be raining today… which meant I would’ve had the day off from work with pay, except that I was sick and had already told them so, which meant no pay for today. Figures. The one day it rains all summer, and I have to be sick as a dog. Ugh… as it was I just hoped this flu or whatever it was went away tomorrow.

'''August 17th, 2005'''

Well, what do you know? Apparently my hopes were strong enough to be heard by whatever being struck me with the flu. I woke up this morning, early as always, feeling just like my old self, no sign of the nausea and cruddiness that had plagued me the past few days… though there was a strange feeling I had regardless. I shook it off and climbed down the ladder to my loft-bed… and almost stumbled. Huh, I must’ve been more tired than I thought. Shrugging, I went into the bathroom as I always did, hand rubbing a strange feeling I had on my head.

I’ll spare you details as to the timing, but suffice to say as I was in the bathroom I had the strangest feeling… like I had moved something on my head, air moving over it. I reached up to brush off whatever it was, only to stop as my hand hit something. I froze, fingers feeling an object that was wide where it met my head, tapering to a triangular point at the top, and hollow. And strangest of all, I could feel it. Not with my fingers, but with it itself, as if it was a part of me. Frantically, I took a few steps to the side and looked in the mirror to see… an ear. It was a triangular ear, with a mate on the opposite side, the outside covered in fine reddish fur. I stared, noticing that where my ears normally were was a flat expanse of skin, as if they were gone. Was I still sick? Was I hallucinating now? I was definitely going to have my mother take me to the doctor today… but despite it all, I found myself fascinated. Then I looked down.

My hands, at the time gripping the edge of the sink, were also changing, except that this time I could actually SEE the change progressing along them. And the feeling as it did… I can’t describe it, aside from a faint tingling at the line of change, clearly seen from the fine black fur creeping up my hand from my fingers, and watching as my nails faded away, sharpening into thin claws. I turned a hand over to find that the palms weren’t getting covered, instead getting replaced by some sort of fleshy pad. My mind struggled to make sense of it, and one of my scenarios popped into my head. It couldn’t be possible, but here it was in front of me. I resolved that I had to watch this through to the end, it was too unbelievable, but it was happening. That, or this was some marvelous hallucination… it felt too real to be a dream.

The change continued up my arms, black fur spreading over it until about my elbows, when it changed to a reddish color. As it did, I couldn’t help but notice that my hands and arms looked… a little different, aside from the fur. More slender, or sleek perhaps. I shook my head as the fur reached my shoulders, spreading across my bare torso, white fur popping up on the front. Transfixed I watched, then gripped the sink with my hands as I felt the changes reach several key points at once, signifying that a more radical change was taking place.

I groaned slightly as I felt my spine start lengthening, stretching outwards over the waistband of my boxers into a long tail, which immediately started growing long fur over it, fluffing itself up. The fur passed my neck, and my face started pushing outwards. I closed my eyes as the feeling washed over, gritting my teeth as they sharpened and stretched out, a slew of smells starting to fill my nose as it widened. My legs, to my unfortunate note, were also changing and warping, and though I couldn’t see it, from the way my heel lifted off the floor and my leg stretched, I knew I was taking the more animalistic of postures. Mentally I thanked whatever being was doing this that he hadn’t included any “sickly popping” sounds I had heard described in many an Animorphs book.

That was not all, though. The tingling, strange feeling lingered over two more areas. I felt a strange sense of loss between my legs that I won’t go into further detail about, while a feeling of growth and expansion settled around the upper portion of my torso. I kept my eyes closed, being a stickler for drama and wanting to wait to see everything until the change was completed soon after. I panted a bit from the exertion when I felt the tingling finally fade away into nothingness, and then finally opened my eyes.

My newly-elongated jaw dropped as I stared at myself in the mirror in disbelief. The fur had spread over my body, reddish in color except for a large area where it was white on my front, starting just at the underside of my new muzzle and stretching downwards between my thighs, and black fur covering my forearms and forelegs. The tail I had felt was long and bushy, tipped with white on the end, and I even gave it a twitch just to see if I could. My legs had changed, seeming to bend twice before coming to my toes. Walking was probably going to be tricky now, but at least I found myself able to stand alright. My face had a long muzzle, ending with a nose that allowed me to smell an amazing number of scents, although some of what I smelled in the bathroom now suggested this wasn’t necessarily a good thing.

The last thing however, was that I was no longer a Lester. Not exactly. While I was still me, at least as far as I was concerned mentally, my body had become female. My black hair had lengthened, ending down around my mid back, looking surprisingly good all things considered. Apparently my dandruff was gone. More importantly, however, two large breasts sat on my chest, or at least I assume they were large… the internet had ruined my perception of such things. Hefting them up in my hands briefly, I was amazed that I could feel WITH them, and a quick check between my legs confirmed my suspicions. I was a woman, and a fox—a literal fox—as well.

After a moment of disbelieving staring, I shook my head. I had become a vixen but now I had to deal with it. Strange as it may sound I had developed a procedure for if something like this happened. Step one was to see if the world around me had changed to fit. I read a lot of stories and webcomics, and such a situation had popped up in one or two. Besides, for all I knew I could’ve invisibly fallen through a portal in my sleep into a world of furries and changed to match the situation. And the best place to do that was the wall of family pictures outside.

After a couple experimental steps in the bathroom to make sure I still knew how to walk, the new claws on my toes tapping lightly against the tile, I opened the door and walked into the hall, looking over the family pictures. Uncle, aunt, parents, me… no change. Whatever had happened had only affected me and not history, which made this more difficult to deal with. Step two was going to be-

“Morning Lester. You feeling better?”

I froze. Crap. My father had just woken up. Telling my parents somehow wasn’t supposed to be until step three or four! Then I noticed the casuality of his tone and looked at him. He was looking right at me, yawning slightly, and didn’t seem to see anything different. “Er, somewhat, dad. I’m not feeling as crappy but I’m still feeling a little odd…” I said to him, my voice sounding strange to me as I looked at him. He looked back at me. Well, slightly over me, I noticed that I had lost an inch or two. Strange, shouldn’t he still be looking in my eyes?

“Think you’re well enough for work today?” he asked me.

I shook my head. “No, no, I… I think I’ll stay home again today, thanks.”

My father nodded, then headed back into his room and closed the door, likely to take a shower. I went back into my room and closed the door. Something was wrong here. The world hadn’t changed to match what happened, but my father acted as if nothing was wrong. He didn’t even react to my voice! Could he just not see what happened to me? Despite my hours of daydreaming I had never thought of what I’d do if something like this happened.

Shaking my head, I resolved to get on my computer and complete step two anyway. I’d try the TV later. For now, though, I logged onto IRC and started checking various news sites to see if I was the only one affected.

Unfortunately, no such luck. The news was unaware of anything, although considering how soon after my own change it was the online pages might not update for a while. And the few people on IRC, despite my vague hints, didn’t react any different. Either my hints were poor, or I was the only one who changed. And nobody could see me. Great. Dealing with being a fox and a newly-made Leslie without anyone able to help or see me. This was going to be fun.

A while later, after double checking everything and feeling my stomach rebelling against me, I headed out to the living room, father watching the news while my mother was walking in from her room. After giving her the same reply as I gave my dad regarding how I was feeling, she went into the kitchen to make me some eggs. I sat down on the couch and watched the Today Show with my dad.

It was during one of the panning shots of the crowd outside the New York studio that I thought I saw it. Surprised, I grabbed the remote for the Tivo and rewound it a bit, pausing the scene. “Les? What are you doing?” blinking, I glanced at my dad before looking back at the screen.

“Oh, ah, I thought I saw someone I recognized. That guy over there, next to the woman with the “I love Al Roker” sign… he look familiar to you?” I pointed at the wolf in the audience, smiling and waving at the camera frantically.

My father shook his head. “No, haven’t seen him. Who’s he look like?” I blinked as he clearly couldn’t see the wolf either, and shook my head.

“I don’t know, he just… looked kinda familiar. Sorry.” Shaking my head to clear it I unpaused the TV, going through what had just happened.

I wasn’t the only one who had changed. At the very least, there was a wolf man in New York City (I chuckled as I thought of a werewolf in Manhattan. Wasn’t that the name of a movie or something?) and my dad couldn’t see him either. And if there were two of us, there might be more. But I had no idea how to get in contact with any of them. I sighed. My best hope was clearly to hope he or some other person who changed came down to the beach in the next few weeks. And that they came to my booth. On a day I worked. Well, at least I worked five days a week…

I closed my eyes as I sat back, wincing slightly before pulling my tail out from behind me, disguising it as brushing something I saw off the couch. The rest of the day was spent trying to figure out what I would do now, what I would have to change without seeming different, how I’d wear hats, and finding out that none of my few friends on MySpace had seemed to change, nor any of the many people on IRC. I went to bed that night, irritated at how I wouldn’t really be able to sleep on my back anymore with this tail, hoping that whatever had happened, I would have my answers soon.

'''August 18th, 2005'''

“Pk… Cshhhhhhh…” went the radio before I turned it off. Never could get a station on the dang thing, only static and loud noises that were supposed to be voices. Blinking the sleep out of my eyes, my arm fell across my chest… a bit sooner than it should have I thought… then I looked down, seeing the bare breasts with my black-furred arm atop them. “Oh right,” I muttered to myself. Well that settled that, this wasn’t a one day thing… which meant that I could start worrying again…

The day before I had been thinking of new scenarios and things I’d have to deal with as a fox and a woman that nobody could see. What I’d do if someone could see me, how I’d convince others without seeming insane, whether I actually WAS insane and having a vivid hallucination… but the thing I was most fearful of was that this was permanent. Sure I had always envisioned things like this would happen, but only as a trip into the weirdness that I could always return from. Permanency scared me. I closed my eyes and tried to put the thought out of my head. Permanent or not, it looked like a nice day, which meant I had to go to work.

Getting dressed showed the first of the difficulties to deal with. My pants and briefs DID fit… relatively… but my tail was keeping me from pulling it all the way up. That would be irritating. Grabbing one of the powder-blue work shirts I pulled it on… blushing with a gasp as the fabric rubbed against my chest, trying to ignore it, glad for once that I usually was given the shirts after they ran out of mediums. As I turned to leave I stopped, looking down at my paws. There was no way I’d be able to wear my sandals now, I’d never be able to keep them on. Not without some complex series of string or something. And I couldn’t go out barefoot! Or barepaw or whatever. Hell I never did! And people would probably see something strange about me walking everywhere barefoot anyway… I glanced at my boots. I usually wore them when I wasn’t wearing sandals, and it WAS starting to get cool, so maybe if I could cram my paw into it somehow I could-

I froze and stared. I had been trying to put my paw into my boot even as I was muttering to myself and as soon as it touched the bottom of the boot it disappeared, leaving my paw standing where my boot had been! In disbelief I reached down to try and see if it was still there, only for it to suddenly reappear as I tried to regrab where it was. Then it disappeared when I let go. Reappear. Disappear. This made absolutely no sense! I couldn’t even wear shoes now? Or… was it going to… wherever it needed to for others to see it the way they saw me? It didn’t matter. Even with it on it wasn’t on. I still couldn’t go around barefoot, not even like this. And if anything I put on disappeared…

I looked at my dresser. “Maybe not everything…” I opened it up and took out a pair of socks. Trying to take the Mysterious Invisible Boot off, I carefully slipped on one of the socks, having a lot of trouble as I did due to the claws on my toes catching on the fabric. Growling I persisted, until finally I got it on to the end, the sock still there. I flexed my toes, only to feel one of the claws get caught in the fabric, and sighed, feeling my ears splay in disappointment. I may be able to use it for now but these socks would get filthy and if I stepped in anything… not to mention they’d be torn apart just from putting them on.

I sat down on the chair at my computer, hand on my face in frustration. I couldn’t live like this, there had to be SOMETHING I could do. I didn’t have time to go into it now though. I looked at my paws again. “It’ll have to do for today,” I muttered, before finishing the task and walking out.

As I started to leave I grabbed my hat and looked at it. With my ears on top of my head now I couldn’t really wear it well, but I had to. If I didn’t, anyone who knew me would know something was wrong, and I had to try to hide this. Trying to fold my ears against my head I put on the hat, groaning a bit. It was uncomfortable, and everything became a little muffled, but I’d have to deal. Ironic, really, the timing of what happened. My old hat, which I wore just a month ago before retiring it, had holes my ears could stick through easily. Shaking my head, I bid farewell to my parents and walked out of the house to tackle biking to work…

'''August 22nd, 2005'''

A week.

It had been almost a week since the change, and I was trying to deal as best I could. Biking was surprisingly easy and not that affected by my new legs, though I had to concentrate on my massive fluffy tail to keep it from touching the rear tire. Having tried showering now I realized just how long drying would actually take, something I didn’t expect, for both my fur and my now-much-longer hair. Twice already my parents had asked if I was alright in the bathroom. My hat I couldn’t do anything about. If I tried cutting holes in it everyone would know something was up, so I had to deal with everything being muffled whenever I left the house. My paws, meanwhile, I had come up with a temporary solution. I found some spare fabric at home and each day would wrap it around my feet, tying it off. After I got home I’d toss it in the garbage, and find some more fabric the next day. I’d probably have to buy some soon. Maybe if I-

My jaw dropped as my eyes scanned the boardwalk. There, coming up one of the ramps across from my booth, was what looked like a rabbit. But one like me! Anthropomorphic, I believe was the term. He looked around, white fur almost blindingly reflecting the light, before he saw me. His eyes looked at mine for a moment before he started walking over. Shaking my head and trying to turn back to my book I tried to at least look casual.

“Excuse me, miss?” came a voice, and my grip on the book tightened, claws pricking the cover. He saw me as a miss! He could be real! Unless he… I had to find out.

“Buy a pass,” I muttered up.

His hand paused just in my view. “Excuse me?”

“I said buy a pass,” I hissed. “Please… we won’t talk until you do.” There was a pause before I heard him walking away, glancing at me confusedly. He walked up to Allen in the booth, spoke to him briefly, and purchased one of the passes onto the beach. Money changed hands, and I saw Allen point him towards me, telling him I’d punch the pass. He came back over to me, holding the pass out. I exhaled a breath I didn’t realize I was holding. “Oh thank God…”

“What was that about?” he asked me as I took the pass with shaking hands.

“I… I had to be sure,” I said. “I didn’t know if I was hallucinating or not and you may have been a figment of my imagination. If Allen didn’t give you the pass I-“

“I understand,” the rabbit said as he took the pass back. “It’s weird, I know, but you’re not alone. I can explain everything, but not here. When do you get off?”

“My lunch break is at one,” I said. “Meet me here then, we’ll get lunch together. And thank you… I’ve been hoping for someone to show up here for a week. Ah… my name’s Lester, by the way. Lester Calvin.”

The rabbit looked confused for a moment, an ear twitching. “Lester?” then his eyes widened. “Ooooh, you’re one of THOSE! Double whammy, eesh. I’ll try to help how I can but… anyway my name’s Eli Planter. I’ll be back at one.” He took my hand and shook it, before turning and walking off on the boardwalk, possibly to look for others.

I sat back, relieved. Finally… I was starting to think I wouldn’t find anyone else, despite this being the place all the beach goers from New York City came to. But it paid off, finally. And soon I’d have my answers.

----

One o’clock couldn’t come soon enough, and I found myself checking my watch more and more as the hour came, tapping a toe impatiently as my relief showed up a few minutes late. Sighing, I turned and walked off, seeing Eli standing at one of the ramps. As I approached I got a better look at him. He was short, a little shorter than me, the tops of his long perky ears just barely passing my own ear tips. He seemed to be dressed fairly comfortably, but was barefoot. I winced slightly as I noticed that, but tried to pay it no mind. By now I had gotten used to the smell of people around me thanks to my stronger fox nose, but Eli was emitting a strange scent. I hadn’t smelled it much but it was there, just covering another scent that some part of my mind found… intriguing. “I only have about an hour,” I said as we started walking. “We can talk on the way to the Burger King down there.”

Eli nodded. “I’ll try to tell you as much as I can then, but not until we get a seat. We’re trying to keep the Change secret, and I can’t let anybody overhear.”

I reluctantly nodded a bit, then spoke up. “At least tell me this first then… is this permanent?”

Eli sighed, closing his eyes briefly. “As far as we know, yes. There’s a bit more to it but I’ll explain later.”

I stumbled slightly but kept walking, my mind trying to deal. Permanent… “It… it can’t be,” I muttered. “Maybe it only lasts a few months or a year or two and then-”

“I’ve been Changed since 1998,” he said, interrupting me. “And I’m hardly the oldest. I’ll explain more when we get inside.”

I opened my mouth to speak, then stopped. “Right, sorry…” I looked down at him. 1998… that was 7 years! I shook my head to clear it as we walked into the BK, myself ordering a burger and fries while he simply ordered a salad. I couldn’t help but wonder if being a rabbit he had adapted his eating habits… but then again, I’d been finding myself preferring meat more lately. Finally we sat down and, as he opened his salad package, he started explaining.

“Alright. Now the first thing you should know is that yes, this is real. You’re a fox and I’m a rabbit, and we’re not the only ones changing. There are thousands of us across the US, and I’ve heard of a few in Canada as well. Every August seventeenth the number of us doubles, as it has been since the first one changed way back in 1987.”

I gasped. “’87?! That was before I was born!” Eli hmphed. “Thanks for making me feel old… what are you, sixteen?”

“Seventeen, actually,” I muttered, taking a bite of my burger. “Last year of high school.”

“They’re showing up younger every year…” Eli muttered. Then he returned to his explanation. “Before you ask, no. We don’t know what’s causing it or why. We’ve heard everything from aliens to God’s punishment to some Random Omnipotent Being deciding to just mess around with us. Either way, it’s been happening, it’s been showing no sign of slowing, and if it continues at this rate then by 2020 the entire world is going to be covered in fuzz.”

I stared at him in amazement, then thought about it for a bit. “Well that makes sense in a way… by 2020 I mean. There’s a lot of people but exponential growth does add up fast.” Eli blinked at me. “You’re smart for your age, kid.” I chuckled. “Thanks. I’ve already got my eyes on college… anyway, why can’t anyone see us?”

He shrugged. “We don’t know much, except there’s some sort of field or veil covering us. Only we Changed can see other Changed. Everyone else just sees us as we used to be. Human. I’ve heard of one or two Unchanged able to see us as we are, but it’s extremely rare. We’re really thankful for the Veil, though. Without it we don’t know what would have happened. It even disguises clothing changes, so we can get away with tail holes without anyone asking questions.”

I shook my head. “Not for me. My parents do my laundry and if they noticed the holes they’d just make me get new pants. They already get on me about socks or holes in the knees from time to time.” I glanced down. “What about my shoes?”

“Well you just put your shoes on like normally and they just disappear, appearing on your… your ghost or whatever you want to call it.” He glanced down at my paws and blinked. “And WHAT are you wearing?”

I flexed my toes in the fabric I had wrapped my paws up in. “Some spare fabric I found. I can’t walk around barefoot, I mean… gum, dirt, crap… I’m not walking in that all the time. Aren’t there any shoes or anything that we… Changed can wear?”

Eli looked over his own paws (Much bigger than my own and looking more like feet) then back at me. “Ah… not that I know of. You can check the network to see if anyone knows anything, but I’ve never heard anything about Changed footwear.”

I nodded a bit. “When I asked if it was permanent, you said there was a bit more to it…”

Eli nodded as he took another bite of salad. “There’s been reports of some people who changed several years in a row. One year they’re a dog, the next a bear, then a rat. They’re rare, though. Almost as rare as those in… your situation, and never back to human.”

I tilted my head slightly, feeling one of my ears pushing against my hat. “My situation?”

“Gender changing, in addition to the species change,” he replied. “Double whammy. I should mention, we generally refer to other transgendered by their initials so-”

“So I’d be LC,” I said. Eli nodded. “Exactly.” He glanced at my watch. “Look, I’m sorry I couldn’t give you more help, but I gave you all the important information I could. I’m no greeter, but here…” he handed me a card with a pair of websites on it, along with passwords. “Those two sites should help you. One is the main Network forum boards, the other is a new one that’s being formed for NYC Changed. If you’re lucky you’ll be able to get in. The sites are always bogged down and crashing around Change Day.”

I read over the card and nodded. “Alright. Thanks Eli. And thanks for showing me I’m not actually insane.” He shook my hand. “You’re welcome LC. We’re all in this together.” He smiled, and with little else to say, we parted and I headed back to work.

All things considered, I was happy. Sure there was still no solution for my shoe problem, but at least I would be able to get help on all sorts of things I didn’t even think about or come across yet, like… like how to deal with the shower! I hated having to wait forever to dry. Or how to deal with the mo- oh dear. Why did I never think of that? I sighed and shook my head. It was going to be a rough future, but somehow, I’d find ways to deal with it.
[[Category:Story]][[Category:Paradise]][[Category:Chessrook44]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Unforseen Changes}}

Talk:Paradise (Setting)

2011-08-23T01:18:24Z

Chessrook44: /* The Blind and the RDF */

It's an interesting setting, what I've read so far, and I've got an idea or two percolating that may or may not come to fruition. A seed is trying to sprout for an idea starting in '05 and going forward. - [[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]] 19:50, 10 January 2008

---

After the 2011 crash, the setting lost the most newer storys and the enrichment data inside their related Talk_Pages.
Maybe we can get back these with this -> [http://www.archive.org/web/web.php Internet Wayback Machine] in the far-far future (when the data gets very very old, its then available there).

If the "Paradise_(Setting)" page it´s like an array that canalize the flow of "hot ideas" through it´s "insulated tube-rules" (preventing the "leaking and cooling" of the new storys in their necesary "plot-curves" and "bottlenecks-dramas"). . .
Then the "Talk:Paradise_(Setting)" page it´s like the Virtual Remote Control Panel for that powergrid. When a new "hot idea" pop up in the wrong place or it´s going the wrong direction, a colision alarm sound here!.
The "already resolved discussions" divert automatically the issue, and for the real original new ones, at last offer a series of nearby "exhaust valves" designed for the protection of the "global setting" system.
:--[[User:Argamis|Argamis]] 21:01, 3 February 2011 (UTC)

== Theory on how the Change 'spreads' ==

Been thinking about how it might spread, such that we have a higher proportion of Changed in NA, but not leaving the rest of the world out, and I think I know how.

The 'computer virus' that Changes people, uses the RDF to spread itself. Our 'program's' own protection method is also spreading the damages.

Basically, I am guessing that if the RDF needs to kick in on you, then you are passively 'infected'.

Then, when August 17th comes around, the Virus triggers itself, but it for whatever reason can only copy itself for every previously Changed person. (The Doubling effect), and it can only affect people that have been passively infected, ie people who have had the RDF kick in on them.

The goal of the virus is to spread as far as it can, so it takes the number of new Changed it can, and spreads it more or less evenly across the available (RDF-affected) population.

So the first Changed is in Chicago (I think). Through the year until the next Change, she will encounter thousands of people, even in passing, which triggers the RDF on them and passively infects them.

Come August, 1988, the next Changed will be picked randomly from those thousands of people, and now we'll have 2 people spreading the RDF virus. 1989, a big chunk of Chicago has probably had the RDF trigger at least once, not to mention some tourists and other visitors to the city.

In 89, we get 2 more Changed, and one of them could possibly be in a different random city, just because he'd been to Chicago in the past 2 years and unknowingly seen a Changed, and a new nest of RDF-field affected people starts up.

European and Asian and Oceanic outbreaks could happen in years to come as the number of tourists and business people from those reasons travel into North America and begin to be fielded and infected themselves.

The 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City probably 'infected' most of the people who were around and watching, meaning that by then (if not before) pretty much anyone has a chance to be Changed.

It also means that truly isolated areas of the world (South Pacific islands, isolated Amazonian tribes, etc) could potentially be unchanged after the 2020 deadline; but any encounter at all with a Changed would likely Change them immediately and spread like wildfire through the village)

And while the RDF may 'fail' at some point, it'll probably still be around in a less effective form, trying to maintain some stability and spreading the Change. --[[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]]
:I'll give that some thought. It's somewhat similar to something I already had in mind. Perhaps those who have the RDF fail completely will be much more likely to change the next year, or they might even change out-of-phase. In any case, once they figure out that it's like a communicable disease, and everyone is already 'infected', the remaining humans will go nuts. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 12:35, 27 January 2008 (EST)

The spread and the exact reason for the "double" number each year, is as if the virus had only one chance per year to run it´s replication part code. (And someone sugest the use of "infected flags" for the furry virus to later identify the already changed).

The fractal-but-random nature of the spread means the Virus need the furrys alive for it´s reproduction, but not proximity at all (probably because the "computronium cloud" it´s an 11-dimension construct); so when the change secuence start, it´s because a "superior computational request" (diferent from the virus itself) has the need to do something to all the humans in the world, but not something that change all of them in a masive, blind generic "*.*" way.

If the detection of a emergent post-human-like inteligence is the reason of the "simulation", then it´s logical for the "server" to execute some "checking subrutine" regulary (once per year) on the most inteligent elements; stoping the propagation of uber-mutated-code things that come from outside the simulation.
If the server detects something "wrong" in a human, then It will try to correct any mistakes wihout killing him/her. --[[User:Argamis|Argamis]] 00:54, 4 February 2011 (UTC)

I had my theory of how it works the spread:
Every time one furry see/hear another furry (under the efect of the RDF) the Virus of both exchange <IP-person> links of eachother and save this in the "already changed" Virus Flag.
When a non-infected human see/hear a furry, the Virus try to do some "minor modifications" on the human through the RDF, and then set a "infected" Virus flag on his/her data.

When the server "anual check" detect a human with an "infected" Virus flag, thinks that some very critical "code" is missing in that human, and found a message like: "there is a copy of the same code here: <IP-(furry)person>" (this message and the "missing part" of the code, were the "minor modifications" made by the RDF-Interactive-Section of the Furry Virus).
{The TG Virus do not had this "tricky message" in it´s code, and has to wait the ocurrence of an eventual "copy&paste" for his activation/reproduction (this explain the few hundred human affected for this in thousands of years...), then the relationship between the TG Virus and the Furry Virus is a parasite one (or maybe mutualism, we do not know for sure).}

The server now go to the IP-furry_person and check him/her (see more below), then copy the complete code of the Virus and paste-it in the middle of the code of the "infected" human (because has more elevated access privileges, the "server" can write directly on the most "critical" and "active" part of the code of the infected human, the Virus itself can´t do that); then his/her body it´s "corrected" with the furry data "carried" by the living furry that infected his/her previusly.
The Server set a "xxxx check: DONE" server flag in the new furry (xxxx is the year).
The Virus check the flags, change the "infected" to "already changed" on the newbie furry, and modify his <IP_person> to a higher number (this way every year the server check only the humans and the "infected" humans first).

When the server check a furry, (without the "xxxx check: DONE" of that year) see the "already changed" flag like a "minor" error code, then try to restore his/her original (human) form; but the Virus uses the list of <IP-furry> links, and copy&paste the same Virus code again and again from multiple sources... {this is only posible between furry<->furry , the read&write its not restricted between active "brother" Viruses. In fact some "real virus" an P2P users works like this ^_^)
The server left the furry "minor" code intact, but set "xxxx check: FAIL" flag on him/her and go for the next...
Every time one infected human goes furry, the "check" on the previus furry Virus "carrier" blocks any posibility of ANOTHER human infected (by the same "carrier") goes to furry that year.

This way, every year the contact between every group of furries<->humans AND furries<->furries it´s equal in importance (for the expansion of the Virus) as it was the previusly year, the IP-furry-links only can double the efective total number of furry if already exist some conection between all of they (pasive in great citys, active search&contact in more remote regions). --[[User:Argamis|Argamis]] 00:54, 4 February 2011 (UTC)

== Change and disabilities? ==

I keep forgetting to bring this up on IRC, but how do people (as in writers and other interested people in this setting) think disabilities would be affected by the change? Both Mental and Physical?

Would a paraplegic who lost his legs in an accident regrow them if he changed? Would he regain the use of them if they weren't lost but just disabled? (back injury)? What about false teeth, deafness, blindness, etc?

What if the cause was not from a physical accident, but was viral or bacterial in nature? Some disease struck them blind? Would they stay blind?

And what if the disabilities were genetic? Would those genetic flaws still show in the new form?

Finally, what about mental disabilities? Could the Change 'cure' Alzheimer's? Would it affect someone who is literally a brain dead vegetable on life support?

If it does have curative properties, I suspect we'll start seeing more and more miracle cures (assuming they can survive the flu) in the years to come. Which may imply that there'll be a push in the early to mid 2010's to just keep someone alive as long as possible in the home they Change and are cured/fixed.

Thoughts?

--[[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]] 11:00, 4 February 2008 (EST)

:I think there are good arguments to be made for some healing properties of the Change, but I wouldn't make it go all out. A person missing a limb should still be missing a limb after the change (I have in mind a scene with a one-armed pianist who goes monkey and starts playing with his feet).

:When it comes to things like Alzheimer's, that is a much more difficult choice. I don't see mental retardation being suddenly healed by the Change, as that is a birth defect (and such things happen in animals too). But progressive diseases may backtrack, even if the conditions begin to return over time. That could make an even more painful story, somebody suffering from Alzheimer's, who Changes and now recognizes all his family again. But after a year or so everything starts to slip away again...

:Anyway, the whole keeping folks alive and hoping for a Change could make a good dynamic too. I just think there's a lot fo possibilities to consider before we make a decision on this. --[[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]] 12:24, 4 February 2008 (EST)
::I'm inclined to do as Matthias suggests. It's more or less what I had in mind. However, one of the things that the Change does is it puts everyone in very good health. Even being a 300 pound female bear, CM is in very good shape. It will cure some ailments, and put chronic diseases into remission. Those developments will confuse the medical community enough without regrowing limbs or curing Down's Syndrome. But if you've read the latest Tall Tales, ROB is being forced to act more openly. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 15:40, 4 February 2008 (EST)

:What happens to medical devices like heart pacemakers or hip replacements that were implanted in people before they changed? --[[User:JeniSkunk|Jenifur Charne]] 20:45, 10 February 2008 (EST)

::That's basically an open-ended question. I'm going to leave the answer to that one unsaid because I think it'd be a good Plot Point in a story. A furry episode of ''House'' maybe? --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 22:45, 10 February 2008 (EST)

::Late into the discussion, but better late than never. : ) Anyway, what about things like fillings and caps on teeth? Going to a dentist would be interesting. Going another step, outside medical devices wouldn't fit anymore and would bring up some unique delimas. What about people with prosthetics? If someone turns into a bear, I'm sure their leg isn't going to fit anymore, yet Unknown will wonder why they make such a claim all of a sudden. Lots of places to go with these stories. [[User:Tinbender|Tinbender]] 21:24, 5 May 2008 (EDT)

Hey, not really sure on any of the points raised, have to give it some thought. One thing to consider though is can anthro's act as a bridge to humans for viruses that currently only affect animals?--[[User:Devin|Devin]] 23:35, 10 February 2008 (EST)

== A mortal analysis of Paradise ==

Lets me see if I get some of the details right.

There is a post-singularity Uber-computer, that when projected into 3-space, has the same consistency as humanity's combined thumbnail and happens to be running a simulation of the events leading up to its own creation. Secondly, it gets infected by a super-bug/virus that makes borg nano-probes look overly large and cumbersome. Said post-singularity, sentient, ROB-type entity/ virus changes some lines of code (if such things can be referred to as such) in reference to the people in the simulation, in and around the vicinity of Chicago (maybe the super-bug's designers had way-distant ancestors from there, or whose ancestors had a grudge against the place). The Uber-comp, in a flash of inspiration counters with the 'firewall-from-not-heck', or RDF as we understand it. The ROB is still successful with its dastardly and despicable plan to make the simulated history end differently.

That I get as far as it can be understood by a three-dimensional entity not particularly versed in post-singularity, multi-dimensional physics and computational theory.

The RDF, The Veil, The "Really-Annoying-Mess-Up-Everyones-Lives" Field, appears to start collapsing or 'twisting' in several personal accounts. In fact, it would seem that there are certain individuals who have appeared to figure out means of 'gazing-past' the gaps in said previously mentioned field even though they do not have one of their own. Yes it has been theorized that they will soon fall victim to the ROB, however, consider that all of this is in one sense mere coding (albeit it happens to be far more complex than that), and that said people are taking advantage of 'bugs' in the code. How many bugs are there? Is it possible for someone (probably a changed, or mad scientist) to 'tune' or 'tinker' with the field, probably no more than tweaks to appearance or color? I know the Primary Engineer Of This Work has stated that there are no 'powers', but then again, this is all just code, and hackers can sometimes be just mortal.

Just a thought or two. I should probably stop this monologue before a super spy shows up.
~midon~

:You're pretty close overall, though the simulation doesn't necessarily have to be of the ROB's own creation. Human Earth could be something It came up with all by Itself. Another book that's similar to what I've come up with here is ''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwinia_(novel) Darwinia]''. Someone suggested that the best thing for the ROB to do is to restore from backup. The thing is, these are still people. ROB doesn't have a moral problem with allowing them to die within the sim, but will act to protect both itself and its people from an outside threat. Hence the RDF and other measures.--[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 17:46, 4 February 2008 (EST)

== Thinking far future... ==

First, to make it VERY clear, I am NOT thinking of any stories or anything set in the 2020 period yet. I've just been thinking of how the world may be like by then, as the last half are about to change.

I suspect there would be a mix of celebration (the last humans are joining us!) and mourning (humans will no longer be as they were). Regionally, there will probably be searches for the "last human baby", the ones born days/hours before the last Aug 17 change; they'd probably be local celebrities, similar to "New Years Babies"

And in 2021, the nervousness would start. Is the change source gone? Is it mutating? Are we going to change further? Or into something else now? For the Changed Generation, that little shiver of fear every August 17th will probably persist until they are all gone.

All that assumes civilization hasn't fallen apart by then of course. :)

--[[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]] 10:42, 25 February 2008 (EST)

== Summer Olympics ==

This was nagging at the back of my mind a bit, but I finally nailed it down to actually check dates:

:"The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, will be celebrated from August 8, 2008 to August 24, 2008".

For the record, the 2004 Olympics also just straddled the Change day, having started on Aug 13th. No other Summer Olympics have straddled Change day, but the 1996 games ended just before it, and the Paralympic Games that year did straddle the Change day.

The 2012 games in London curiously have a break between the end of the Olympics on Aug 12, 2012, and the start of the Paralympics on Aug 29.

Just something to think about for writers out there. :)

--[[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]] 10:07, 27 February 2008 (EST)

:The Change takes place right in the middle of the Olympics. All it takes is for one or two athletes to change to gum up the works. These people are already in top physical shape, too. But what happens when a swimmer becomes a dolphin, an otter, or perhaps something that doesn't swim well? I don't think the RDF can handle becoming as large as a rhino. They'll still displace an awful lot of water when they splash in.

:I'll have to mention this in Open Secrets.

:--[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 14:53, 27 February 2008 (EST)

::At least the illness will be a bit of a cover. Depending on how many Changed athletes there are, (both active and new Changed), the illness could be used to skip out on some events out of necessity.

::Still the pressure to perform, even if their form is inappropriate for the sport (A Bull trying to do a polevault or the triathlon in general? A bear for gymnastics? A Mouse in weightlifting? ) will be intense

::There would probably be a lot of discussion when a star athlete suddenly isn't performing as well as they did before.

::Of course, a few years after that, the Beijing Olympics here will probably end up with a * like the LA and Moscow Olympics, as people find out about the Change and the number of ringers (otters in swimming events, felines and primates in gymnastics, gazelles and cheetahs in track events, bears and bulls in weight lifting, etc...) semi-intentionally sent by the various countries. We could very well see TTC-level problems happening in Olympic Village.

--[[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]] 15:07, 27 February 2008 (EST)

== What happens ''after'' 2020? ==

Point one: Computer programs are never ''intrinsically'' equipped with an off-switch. Rather, a shutdown condition must be explicitly coded into a program -- and any program which ''lacks'' an explicit shutdown condition, will continue to chug merrily along until something hardware-ish gets in the way.

Point two: The Change is the result of a 'furry virus", ''i.e.,'' a '''computer program'''.

2020 is when the entire planetary population will be furry... but who's to say the 'furry virus' won't ''continue'' to do its thing, Changing people year in and year out, with each year's quantity of Changes being double that of the year before? We know that being Changed is ''not'' an absolute protection against the 'furry virus' -- the setting rules themselves ''explicitly allow'' previously-Changed people to get hit with another dose of Change, after all -- so ''either'' (a) the 'furry virus' ''does'' have an explicitly-coded off-switch, or else (b) starting in 2020, an ever-increasing number of people are going to end up Changing ''two or more times in any given year.''

If the 'furry virus' ''has'' a built-in off-switch, that begs the question of what, exactly, its shutdown condition ''is.'' Does it stop spreading/infecting when there's no unchanged Human left, is it waiting for some specific event or combination of events before it quits, or what? Perhaps the guy who wrote the 'furry virus' did so with the specific intent of encouraging ROB to make [insert specific changes here] in ROB's virtual world, such that the results of those changes are the virus's 'off-switch'?

If, on the other hand, the 'furry virus' has ''no'' built-in brakes, things can get weird, fast. People have already floated the notion of Changes happening "out of season"; what if these 'unscheduled' Changes are merely a harbinger of things to come, in which people can be re-zapped at any time of year, an arbitrarily large number of times per year? It may be instructive, or at least amusing, to extrapolate the data given in "The Numbers", and divide each year's expected number of Changes by the expected population for that year: In 2020, there's 1.12 Changes per person (perhaps every human being Changes, regardless of their current state, and there's a 12% chance of one guy Changing ''twice?).'' Since we're basically talking about a doubling function, it only takes until 2024 for every ex-human to be an involuntary member of the Change Of The Month Club (because there's a touch over 17 Changes per person that year), and the Change Of The '''Day''' Club starts up in 2029 (during which year there's a bit less than 514 Changes per person per year). In 2034, the extrapolated number of Changes per person for that year is significantly over 15,000 (which works out to about 7/4 of a Change ''per hour,'' every hour, for every human being); by 2040, we hit 1.75 Changes per ''minute;'' 2046 is when every human being starts to hit 1 Change per ''second.''

To repeat what I said above: Things get weird, fast.

Obviously, the above figures are ridiculous, since they're derived from mindless extrapolation of an exponential curve. Perhaps the most sensible way to go is to presume that ROB manages to ''do'' something about the metatstasizing 'furry virus' no later than 2025 or so. In any case, one hopes said figures at least provide a bit of food for thought... [[User:Cubist|Cubist]] 05:03, 10 March 2008 (EDT)

== Change and the Media ==

It's probably a sign that I watch WAY too much TV, but it's a theme that's been in the back of my mind (man that back area's getting mighty crowded with ideas). As the Change progresses, even with the Veil in place, more and more effects of the Change will start showing up in other ways, and it will become more and more 'public' even if the Unchanged won't really know what is going on. I suspect TV shows especially will begin to show a lot of these.

This is just some of my rambling thoughts on what the TV Cable signals might be sending to the screens of the Changed near-Future.

Reality TV in all its forms will probably be the first to really start showing the effects of the Changed, since they tend to have the fastest turnaround time and the most contact with non-actors. Court shows (like I wrote in my short story case) will have more and more cases of Changed vs Norms and even weird Changed vs Changed cases. "He won't share the nail clippers!" "She gifted me the money for the vacation to Alaska in January")

Gameshows also will start having more Changed contestants, especially popular ones like Price is Right.

And then you have the Survivor types. Show's like "Top Model" and "Bachelor(ette)" and "Blind Date" (especially given the Change's habit of giving the Changed Eye-turning bodies) will probably have the most Changed on a show early on (whether intentionally or unintentionally).

Home Makeover shows may start seeing even weirder designs as designers/homeowners remake rooms to give room for antlers or bigger buttons for hoof fingers and such. (We thought Frank's designs on Trading Spaces were weird BEFORE he Changed... :P )

Amazing Race may have a Changed Team soon; a few Changed in the Big Brother House (probably intentionally put in there by a Changed Studio staffer), and the next Survivor or two would probably have some contestants.

Once the Field comes down, I fully expect CBS to roll out a "Furries vs Normals" Survivor while they can.

Now onto more tasteful TV. (arguably :P )

Cartoons? (what few new ones that are made) will likely start having more and more of a furry bend to them. Hallowe'en specials may turn 'human' toons into furry ones as experiments to transition shows.

Soaps? Expect Change stories fairly soon I dare say. I don't watch them myself, but from what I've heard of some storylines they've done in the past, the Change isn't all that strange. These writers will probably be chaffing at the restrictions of the Field the most.

Sitcoms will probably start getting Changed in-jokes fairly quickly as more Changed writers and actors come on staff. Some of the jokes may verge on Veil-breaking too, but viewers would discount as visual FX.

Procedurals/Drama's, business as normal but more Change-related stories. Maulings and gorings investigated on CSI's (along with strange fingerprints/bootprints, hair samples, etc...), Without a Trace investigating people who disappear after Change Day, maybe even a TG mystery. Numb3rs maybe touching on the Change rate (imagine Chris brought in as an advisor for an ep ? :) ). House or ER dealing with a Changed patient and/or Changed doctors/nurses.

And finally (for now) Sci Fi/Fantasy shows will probably find themselves in a very difficult position. On the one hand, they'd be ideal to start exploring the Change itself. On the other hand, as long as the Field is in effect, they can't really explore them since they'd have to turn normals into Furry's (or dress furry's in fursuits). Plus, a show's setting may not exactly be ideal for adjusting to the Change. "SG-1/Atlantis" may be able to adjust (turn it into an Ori curse or something), but Terminator would have a harder time. Heroes could probably pull it off, but BSG? Unlikely. (Imagine them finding 'Earth' but it's a Furry Earth... Hmmm...)

Anyways, that's just some of my rambling thoughts on the TV of the near future, for what its worth.

:There's a simple way to make furries show up in Television. Simply use the polarized lenses as featured in Open Secrets on the video camera units. The image of the furries would pass through the polarized lenses onto the film. The film would record the true image in the same way that people would see the true image. Boom, RDF circumvented. --[[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]] 12:26, 28 January 2009 (EST)

:: True those would work. But everyone involved for those scenes would have to Know or questions would be raised. Depending on the scene and production. (Thouhg some could be handwaved, as long as the producer/editors Know. "Bob's gonna play the part of a man-rat for this scene. We'll CG-replace him in Editing afterward"

::--[[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]] 12:33, 28 January 2009 (EST)

::: Well, at the very least, the cameraman is going to be in the know fast! Actually, I could see something like this being done once things go public. We could have a documentary on the early Changed (while you can still get human actors!), and you'd have some cameras with the filter on it and some without so you could show what the Changed sees and what the unsuspecting humans around him see. --[[User:98.236.12.68|98.236.12.68]] 05:14, 29 January 2009 (EST)

:::: That is happening to some extent, though not with the filters yet. Shiloh (and her new boyfriend newly Changed this year) are doing what they can to document the Change and how it affects lives as it happens (on the side from their main jobs), and I'm sure she's far from alone on this.

:::: Once more Documentary makers get ahold of this and it goes public, I'm sure there will be more too.

::::--[[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]] 10:33, 29 January 2009 (EST)

== Furries in Space? ==

OK Time for even more thoughts from me. :) Endeavor's launch last night triggered this thought.

I'm not going to elaborate, but is anyone watching the ISS crew for change symptoms? Or the shuttle crew if they're up? A Change up there could be Veil breaking just because of the amount of attention and lack of privacy those people have. (not to mention the extreme circumstances they'd be under).

The Change itself could very well spell the end of Manned space flight for the next few decades in the end.

Not sure if it would spell the end of manned space flight but yeah even just an examination of the air filter would find stuff that couldn't have gotten up there any other way.--[[User:Devin|Devin]] 19:16, 11 March 2008 (EDT)

:I'm sure it'd be the end of manned space flight for quite some time simply for economic reasons if nothing else. This is going to be rather disruptive and there'll probably be a bit of a budget pinch. [[User:Bryan|Bryan]] 19:21, 18 March 2008 (EDT)

==The Reality Distortion Field is Real ==

Sadly, not the one you have in mind: http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/18/2117208 :) [[User:Bryan|Bryan]] 19:21, 18 March 2008 (EDT)

== Bats? ==

Just a question about the species: I've noticed you put aside birds for now, but what about bats?--[[User:142.68.130.19|142.68.130.19]] 23:52, 1 April 2008 (EDT)

:Bats will put a huge strain on the Veil. If/when they do show up, it might be coming down by then anyway. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 00:36, 2 April 2008 (EDT)

== Farming in Paradise ==

Just shooting an idea in here for later. [http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080410153658.htm This is the technology] widely deployed it the Paradise setting. But put the clock back ten years (1997 discovery, widespread global deployment by 2008). Biochar/agrichar. With any luck, the Green Revolution will be replaced with the Black Gold Revolution quickly. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 03:27, 15 April 2008 (EDT)

== BioFuels ==

Jon, you're beginning to scare me a bit. :P

This was just on Slashdot this morning: [http://www.utexas.edu/news/2008/04/23/biofuel_microbe/ New Source for Biofuels Discovered by Researchers At The University of Texas at Austin]

Basically, some bacteria that can make cellulose which can be turned to fuel, and the cellulose can be harvested without harming the bacteria.
--[[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]] 06:10, 25 April 2008 (EDT)

:I read about this yesterday. They hope to increase production efficiency 17-fold because otherwise, you'd have to cover the ''entire'' Midwest with this. Unfortunately it won't happen fast enough to prevent the shortages I know are coming.

:I read about this stuff every day. I mean, ''every'' day. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 14:19, 25 April 2008 (EDT)

Another bit of news: [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4133668.ece "Scientists find bugs that eat waste and excrete petrol."] --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 11:12, 15 June 2008 (EDT)

== The Chicago Ghost Killer ==

After having seen countless videos of Persona 3 on youtube, and having played the .hack//GU games, and having read about this setting repeatedly, this idea was born out of my skull. It doesn't really fit with the setting per-say, (people dealing with expected changes in their lives and the changing of culture as truth becomes harder and harder to keep hidden), but it's still interesting.

Imagine if once the number of furries hits the thousand mark or close to it (1997), a strange series of murders begin in Chiago and wander outwards. To normal police and investigators these people have -nothing- in common, just random innocent people. But the furries know that every single person killed was a furry! Now this is where things start to get weird.

When seen by furries, the killer is a lanky laid back twenty something raven haired young man whose expression almost always remains passive wearing semi-formal dark clothes with a revolver in one hand and spare bullets in the opposite pocket.

When the police just about anyone else whose effected by the perception filter see him, they see 'Average Joe' or 'Face You Can't Help But Forget' and never ever notice the weapon he's holding unless he hits them with it or shoots them or something just as drastic. It is also is picked up by metal detectors the same as any metal gun. In other words, his existence, is like the existence of furriness to normal humans, his existence effects them, but they can't notice him directly.

This guy always knows a furry when he sees one regardless of media or medium, or reads one, this include file records of people TGed by the virus. When he spots one or finds out about one, he calmly location that person, in order of him learning about them, and shoot that person in the head without fanfare then simply move on to the next one.

Physically his strength and speed are all perfectly average human, meaning a bear or tiger furry could easy tear him apart.

Strange thing is that if profiled, no records of him will turn up, anywhere!

Also, he might even begin to appear DIFFERENTLY to people who are under the effect of the perception filter. He can't appear as a furry, and can NEVER EVER appear as a precise person (he can't appear as someone's mother or brother). But he can ultimately change how people look at him, they see a five year old girl with a teddy bear opposed to a man with a revolver even if he STILL can't fit in a toy car for the life of him and that 'bear' might go off if someone else 'hugs' it, (which he'd avoid someone doing at all posts). He could also appear as a fire fighter or police officer if he gets clever enough. Though furries will -always- see through this disguise. Along with any human whose able to see furries without effort.

The Chicago Ghost Killer never attacks non-changed humans, and will never take a shot if there's a reasonable chance of shooting a non-changed person.

He travels by mundane methods, he always travels by the most practical and speedy method and always has the correct change or ticket (this is not an illusion). His taxi, train, or airplane never crash.

If detained for questioning, he might just walk straight out of the police station unless some of the cops are furries. If stripped of his weapon and ammo next time he shows up he'll have a new set perfectly identical to the last one down to the imperfections in the casing.

Now this is where things get ambiguous. I don't know if he's killed he just appears in Chicago the day after the change again each year, or weather two different people with abilities similar to his appear in his stead these armed with a crossbow and another one shot distance weapon.

Since deleting the entire universe is not an option, The Chicago Ghost Killer might be an emergency fail safe to try and cut off the infected flesh from the system.

His name comes from where he started killing (strangely the same place as the changes began) and the fact that to normal humans he IS like a ghost, there yet not there but decidedly felt.

I know this doesn't really fit with the setting at all, but I just had to share it with the only people who'd appreciate it.

Thank you.

- Alex Warlorn. 2008 06 15

:And his name is Agent Johnathan Walker Smith, is it? Seems like a Matrix Agent to me... (unsigned comment)
::Actually I don't think he'd -have- a name, or even know the true nature of the world, he'd just know what he -had- to do and how to do it and how he can do it.-- Alex Warlorn

== Octuplets born in California ==

Things that make you go Hmmmm....

8 babies at once
Planning to breast feed them all.
Names not being released (yet).

Could we have a changed couple hiding out there from the glare of the media spotlight? :)

--[[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]] 15:25, 27 January 2009 (EST)

=='''Future RDF Failure'''==

I'm starting to work out ideas about how the RDF would fail. My current thinking is that it will work on a small scale first. Visually, there would be a "refraction", like seeing your own eyes through your glasses. Or your leg halfway in a pool. This is the "Refraction Effect". These are places where the RDF has been removed, like a section of glass, revealing the Real World underneath. It's gone. The visual effect makes it clear a border's been crossed. I'm not sure ''when'' this is going to happen. Probably sometime near the US Gov wants to go public. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 07:57, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

===Weirdness Censor?===

I've been thinking about an "RDF Lite" that could basically act as a Weirdness Censor instead of the full blown see-furries-as-humans version that exists right now. There'd still be social upheaval, but not the civilization-ending type that would most likely happen. I'm very likely going to do this in After Hours, but I want to do it right. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 23:37, 21 May 2009 (UTC)

==Shoe Field Failure?==

[http://www.boingboing.net/2011/03/16/hoof-shoes.html Hoof shoes for about $1,700 ]. What's next? Paw shoes? --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 21:06, 16 March 2011 (UTC)

==The "Posthuman" World ==

In order to differentiate this setting from WoC more, I'm going to keep a certain number of regular humans in the furry world that results when the virus runs its course. Same rules as other furry types as far as parent-child species. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 19:41, 4 June 2009 (UTC)

:No offense, but that feels like a cop-out to me. As someone else pointed out, a computer virus is NOT going to simply 'burn itself out' a computer virus continues like any program infinitely unless it's directly ordered to. Once it runs out of humans to transform, it'll start to transform furries into other species, and become even more chaotic as time progresses. I just feels cheap the virus suddenly just stops, and it doesn't make sense form a programming point of view either since it would open MANY MORE cans of worms anyway. -- Alex Warlorn June 15 2009

::Okay. How to address this? A lot of my ideas for this setting comes from Charles Stross's work, which can get pretty mind-bending at times. ''Accelerando, Glasshouse, Singularity Sky'', and ''Iron Sunrise'' all come to mind. One of my basic assumptions is that the Furry Virus is itself sentient/sapient, but it's not ''quite'' as smart as the transhuman intelligence running the Simulation Space that is our universe (down to the Planck Length).

::The RDF was a last-ditch effort to maintain the experiment as it was. We're all a bunch of microbes, as far as ROB is concerned. But It's not the type of Being to just chuck the whole experiment into the incinerator and start over. At this point ROB has scrapped the original experiment in favor of trying to prevent our little petri dish universe from going completely bad. So, 1) contain the Furry Virus, and 2) prevent it from doing any more damage beyond 2020 by creating a specific End State. The FV remains, but it becomes an uncommon chronic disease.

::Frankly, now that furries and the TGed have been Outed ROB may even stop the history editing. More obvious actions include: Refilling dead oilfields, creating social conditions so humans aren't really surprised at the Change. There are probably all kinds of countermeasures ROB has done that I haven't thought of in order to keep people from going ''crazy crazy'' and incinerating their own petri dish. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 03:57, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

:::I was thinking of a similar idea, but in a programming context as opposed to a biological one, and ''very'' limited. Think of every person as an element of an array, i.e. Human[]. An algorithm designed to change the values of every element, like the furry virus is doing, would most likely go from 0 to some constant POPULATION_HUMAN. In that case, ROB might be able to circumvent the effects for the virus for a select few by assigning people to special values: NULL, NaN, -1, MAX_INT, INFINITY, or other predefined numbers, even those that aren't considered "special" to humans. The purpose of this would be to preserve ''some'' unaltered "data" for purposes not important to us, and it can't be done for all humans because of the effort or memory required to "manually" fix so many values.

:::Conversely, perhaps ROB will let the virus run its course so It can then safely run a variation of the virus to turn everyone back into humans. That would be another interesting take: when the world's furry in 2020, how will everyone feel when they find out they'll all be human again by about 2055, depending on population, and perhaps if the same thing happens in cycles? ...

:::...Or if it turns out that life has been this way for a long, ''long'' time. Thinking back to what ROB has been able to do, this is easily within Its power. -- [[User:MisterBackground|MisterBackground]] 05:31, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

::::ROB figures it's best to let the virus run its course then neutralize it like I've described. Perhaps ROB's reworking the Experiment to account for the new changes.--[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 06:04, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

:::::Colons! Colons as far as the eye can see! Ahaha.

:::::One little problem I had with ''Accelerando'' (though I did indeed love it in all other respects) was how completely unfathomable the Higher Beings were. You never could figure out what their reasons were for anything…and in fact, in all their interactions with the remnants of pre-Singularity humanity, they mostly seemed to delight in "poking the anthill". Sending boatloads of recreations of historical and fictitious characters out to that space station just to mess with humanity's minds. And not only could you not ask them why, you wouldn't be able to understand their answer if you did. Hence, one of the things that you hope you learn in the end—the question of "why?"—is forever unanswered.

:::::It would be kind of nice to have some of the characters eventually be able to confront ROB and the virus and ask them what the deal was, but I'm not holding my breath any. —[[User:Robotech Master|Robotech Master]] 06:22, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

::::::I'm very, ''very'' careful not to jump the shark. But at the very least ROB does have some empathy for us microbes. While ROB does do some "resimulation" for TGed folk, it absolutely ''will not'' alter memories because that would cause personality death.

::::::Paradise is more similar too ''[http://www.amazon.com/Darwinia-Novel-Different-Twentieth-Century/dp/0812566629 Darwinia]'' than ''Accelerando''. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 18:58, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

:::Another possibility I just thought about: perhaps this isn't the act of a virus at all. Instead this is the fix to an ancient "Human Virus" that infected the universe, and it's just restoring the original experiment (or whatever). Or if you ''really'' want to throw people off: humanity ''is'' the virus itself, and this is how ROB is solving the problem. -- [[User:MisterBackground|MisterBackground]] 07:25, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

::Well, to be fair, this is a post-Singularity virus. Nobody ever said it was strictly one-function only. For all we know, it may have a behavioral change programmed into it. "Take Z action until condition A is met, then switch to taking Y action until condition B is met, etc." Or heck, the virus itself may be a sentient/sapient digital life form with free will, fully able to "change its mind" when it wants to. Certainly there is some intelligent agency at work behind the Reality Distortion Field that has already shown the ability to change its own behavior or react to changes in infected people's situations (changing TG furs' "ghosts"—and all extant records—from male to female when they get pregnant, for instance). No reason the virus can't be the same way. —[[User:Robotech Master|Robotech Master]] 23:32, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

:How is that going to work? I'm not sure how humanity can propagate by the "same rules" as other furry types given that it's been established humans and furres are not able to interbreed. Perhaps there might be an inverse of the Sleeping Sickness (a Waking Sickness? :) which causes furries to randomly mutate back into human in addition to the other types of furry form? —[[User:Robotech Master|Robotech Master]] 22:31, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

::Two thoughts: 1) In 2021 there's a group of humans worldwide who don't Change. They're simply the one species among many. After this point they can breed with furres because the RDF is down anyway. Perhaps they can already do this in Bubbled areas in 2010. 2) Human forms can be a recessional trait that shows up on occasion, between two furres.

::Furry babies already look ''very'' human due to a type of neoteny. Even the herbivores like horses and deer have very stubby muzzles. It looks more like a mask when they're born. Within two years those muzzle stubs grow the "baby animal" proportions, then as normal. They're generally more thinly furred for those first two years also. I keep thinking of puppies. No matter what the breed, they all look ''extremely'' similar when newborn. Same will be true in this setting. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 23:55, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Additionally, TG and TF will continue. I'm thinking of something akin to Matthias' character, with random changes. It'll be considered a chronic disease. And the severe forms ''can'' kill you. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 06:40, 5 June 2009 (UTC)

== Possibly the first occurance of ROB ==

As I mentioned when I introduced him, ROB (Random Omnipotent Being) comes from some other message boards I regularly view/visit. Well someone seems to have found what may have been the first occurrence of ROB. [http://forums.spacebattles.com/showthread.php?t=53955] Pretty humble beginnings for him if you ask me. :) (His brother, COROB (Crossover Obsessed Random Omnipotent Being) similarly had humble beginnings a month or so later. [http://forums.spacebattles.com/showthread.php?t=55397] )

== The RDF and extra extremities. ==

Assume here that the RDF is functioning normally and hasn't broken down. Normal humans can't feel the extra extremities of the Changed, like tails and horns - they just feel empty air. But what would another Changed see if they were to look at a normal human attempting to touch a Changed's tail? Would they see the human seemingly passing their hand through the tail of the Changed? [[User:CNash|CNash]] 23:52, 15 July 2009 (UTC)

:I think you've got it wrong. Extra extremities can still be physically felt. The RDF is like a holographic cloak around the changed - it doesn't actually have an effect on their form. -- [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] 00:57, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

:Shadow is basically correct. Their hand wouldn't pass through empty air. They would meet some weird resistance, but they'd forget about it in a short time. Other Changed would see them touch the tail they can't see. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 01:03, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

:: I was going by a line in "Made Alone"; CM's diary entry: ''I say, `Oh yeah, here, grab my tail'. He humors me, but he cannot feel it. I feel him put his hand on it, but he just doesn't feel it.'' - I haven't yet read through all the stories and I'm going chronologically. [[User:CNash|CNash]] 11:26, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

:::If there's one thing I've learned about running a shared setting is to ''not'' demand ironclad continuity. I always allow authors leeway for dramatic purposes, and I don't mind if events don't quite match up. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 00:19, 17 July 2009 (UTC)

::::Given that is the earliest described Change event, I just assumed that the Veil was stronger back then, and since lessened to the extent of allowing feeling of extremities. —[[User:Robotech Master|Robotech Master]] 07:32, 17 July 2009 (UTC)

== Glitch ==

Assertion one: Universe of Paradise setting is mathmatically generated by advanced post-singularity computer. Assertion two: Pre-singularity computers have demonstrated randomized renumbering of internal programing due to outside factors. These renumberings are identified as "glitches," having no basis in programming like bugs and viruses. Assumption: Post singularity computer operates with similar if heavily advanced hardware as pre-singularity computer. Conclusion: Randomized renumberings of programming will occur independently of programming. That is to say, it is not inconceivable that somewhere, a coffee cup on the table is suddenly on the counter. Or that an ant becomes a different species of ant. Or that a gray-eyed man one day has blue eyes. Perhaps these small changes are common and constant. -- [[User:Masterweaver|Masterweaver]] 05:28, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

== Species Expansion ==

We have already seen at least one Elephant man. Is the Furry Virus, as it expands, drawing from a larger gene base? And if so, when would the first nonmammalians arise? Personally, I'm expecting crocs in the near future. Perhaps even 2010... -- [[User:Masterweaver|Masterweaver]] 22:41, 11 November 2009 (UTC)

:The setting is mammals only. Reptiles and birds have very different reproductive biologies. Birds wouldn't be able to fly and cold-blooded creatures can't support a human-like brain and its energy requirements. -- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 01:04, 12 November 2009 (UTC)

== An observation ==

From what I've read, the 'computer simulation' theory is just that- a theory. There's no point blank evidence that this is what's happening within the storyline, and, while I obviously shouldn't just stroll in and rewrite things, but I'd ask the main participators in this storyline to keep this in mind. -- [[User:MCMackers|MCMackers]] -- (note added by [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] 22:43, 12 November 2009 (UTC))

:Jon is the creator of the setting and he has final say in these things... He has not ruled on this yet, but I think he will if it becomes a problem. -- [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] 22:43, 12 November 2009 (UTC)

== If a person doesn't TF again next year... ==

Maybe I missed something. Is it right that if a person doesn't TF again the year after they first change, they stop changing for good? Thinking of the story's setting (computer simulation), if the change is caused by a virus, surely it could keep affcting people? If that doesn't make sense I'll expand, but surely someone knows what I'm talking about. -- [[User:MCMackers|MCMackers]] -- signature added by [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] )

:First it's "bear", not "bare" - homophones are a big stumbling point for a large portion of people, so I try to help people where I can with them :)

: Second... Remember that the whole "post-singularity simulation infected by a virus" schtick is just one possible cause. Jon has said that it could be, but has not pinned it on that. If it really is a virus, then there is a possibility that you could change again 20 years down the line. However... It might be that the multi-change people are somehow an exception - like the virus leaves behind a flag saying "infected" (you'll find this with existing computer viruses, actually) and with multi-changers this flag is missing. Or it could be that the multi-changers are actually being created because of ROB trying to undo the damage done by the virus. And a third possibility is that there is no "virus" and the change is happening according to a plan setup by the people that programmed the simulation - and the multi-changers were randomly selected to be multi-changers.

:In other words... Even if you assume that the postulated "post-singularity simulation" is reality the change could be more than a virus and the limits on multiple changes could be somehow tied directly to the purposes that the simulation was created for... Anyway... I've gone on too long with this. -- [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] 19:03, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

::Ugh. I actually thought whilst typing, "that's not right, it should be bare..." blast. So much for trying to write a story if I can't do that kind of simple thing.

::Thanks for your help. I'm trying to make sure I understand the setting as best I can so I can make my story (hopefully a series, but maybe I'm being a bit ambitious) as best as possible. I'm trying to break the mould... Most characters in the Paradise setting seem to be similar. If my first attempt works, I might try one with a different character... Actually, I'd probably do it even if it didn't work :) -- [[User:MCMackers|MCMackers]]

:::Just to be clear, it is a simulation running on a post-Singularity cloud of computronium. And it is a virus doing the dirty work. :) -- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 02:34, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

:::: *GACK* - Last time I read the setting page that was still a "speculation" bit :( -- [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] 08:10, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

== Human/Furry detail ==

More prattling, sorry. Bear with me (Heh. Got it right this time.).

The information on smaller details in the differences between humans and furs is irritatingly lax, and I hit a block while writing my own story stressing over an incredibly minor detail. My problem aside, I think that the lack of detail makes it awkward to write... Would two characters that changed into the same species be exactly the same anatomically? I'm not sure. A couple of stories have thrown me in that respect, mainly "A Kind of Paradise", and "Twisting the Veil". I feel like I'm having a bit of a whine actually, and should just get on with it, but right now, I feel like speaking my mind. -- [[User:MCMackers|MCMackers]]

:The anatomical differences between furry species can vary, but not so much that they become incompatible with each other. This is why I didn't want to add birds/reptiles/fish/insects. They're just too different. If they're the same species, they're exactly the same. There is a variance in hair (Some have it, some don't) otherwise everyone is firmly anthro rather than, say, animal ears and tail and nothing else. -- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 02:37, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

::I understand why there are only mammals in the setting, personally I think it's a good choice. I wasn't really thinking about the degrees of how human/animalistic people are, but rather what traits they take on when they change. For example, I know that people have commented on changes in sounds and smells, but not sight, is sight affected? -- [[User:MCMackers|MCMackers]]

:::About the sight, in one [[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]]´s story, a morph rat can see the shape and size of objects & dodge them while running, (only with the light of the stars in a moonless night); other humans in the same place need to use flashlights. The same caracter can see colors, read or driving a car like any other human in normal light conditions.
:::Other changed caracter had problems related to perception of deep & 3D; the benefit of a more wide angle of vision it´s not something really useful in the for-human-designed world. --[[User:Argamis|Argamis]] 13:29, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

::And, as for traits, I know that most species of rodents are incapable of vomiting, fox example. But would the humans be affected by this? Of course, I'm not asking for all the details, that would be ridiculous considering the number of possibilities. I just don't want to write something that doesn't follow the rules of the setting. -- [[User:MCMackers|MCMackers]]

:::Actually... Things like that are, IMHO, why the 'Sleeping Sickness' bracelets have been issued. -- [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] 08:10, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

::::Um, yes, those. Maybe I haven't been reading the right stories, but to the best of my knowledge, the bracelets are to let doctors know (provided they already know about the whole thing) what you changed into. Have I missed something? (I feel like I'm asking too many questions. Sorry.) -- [[User:MCMackers|MCMackers]]

:::::There is a mention in one of a changed that was a species to which aspirin is toxic being killed by a doctor prescribing aspirin... I just don't remember which story that was. The stories about Doctor Clay have most of the good information about how changed can suffer from problems/illnesses incumbent to their species. (IIRC there is a judge that starts suffering from a problem only seen in horses - and he's a horse...) -- [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] 08:43, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

::::::The idea behind the "Sleeping Sickness" bracelets was pretty much a (bad) attempt by a small group at the CDC to get help to Changed. Hospitals were supposed to report such cases that presented in order for doctors in the know to be summoned. It was created essentally with the idea that it wasn't really a workable solution, but the best that could be come up with. The factoid that came up about toxic medications was based on a factoid I heard many years ago, that penicillian has a singular toxicity for rodents. As such, as drug testing is set up today, its unlikely it would ever be approved. The idea is that there is enough transformation that people might pick up certiain toxic reactions to things that they didn't realize. I'm not sure anyone has really gone into depth with this, but I'd think you could infer that some canines would have violent reactions to chocolate, for example. Like all things, there would be some variability, just like some dogs can seem to eat chocolate fine while others it might kill. -- [[User:Eirik|Eirik]] 23:52, 23 November 2009 (UTC)

== Extreame ROB ==

I had an odd thought last night about the implications of what ROB does with respect to rewriting documentation of peoples pasts. ROB has been known to change paperwork, pictures and even apparent histories of people. (Didn't someone in After Hours discover they were supposed to have dated people earlier as the opposite gender?) That got me to thinking about how far this might all go. Assuming that ROB doesn't actually start to mess with memories, will it start to alter older records? Pictures from earlier than the first Change, even for subjects that died before it all started? Paintings? And would they be consistent? Would every painting done of George Washington find the same form? And to take it a few steps further, what about statues? This could get messy... which isn't always a bad thing from a story perspective. -- [[User:Eirik|Eirik]] 15:20, 2 December 2009 (UTC)

:I can see that happening more as a result of the furry virus, since that kind of extreme "history editing" feels more malevolent to me than something ROB would do. -- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 20:42, 2 December 2009 (UTC)

::Interesting though that would be, it's an important plot mechanic for there to still be remnants of the human world - Once the entire human race has transformed, they need to still be aware that this has happened - Rewriting history would remove this and it would be as if nothing happened... if you see what I mean? -- [[User:MCMackers|MCMackers]]

::It would make sense for things to get messy if it were the virus causing it. Sloppy, half rewritten pasts, people not sure of what really happened and what didn't, more like a temporal infection than a careful rewriting. That kind of scare could lead the reader to be a bit more sympathetic about ROB trying to stop the virus's progression. It would also make a great opportunity to go all Serial Experiments Lain on a story and leave people wondering wtf -- [[User:Pandora|Tasci]] 09:10, 2 May 2010 (UTC)

== Furry Sizes ==

What size are furries? It's pretty clear that bears are big and mice are small, and it mostly makes sense to have the same thing (but not as extreme) for anthroid furries, but there are some other size differences I can't so easily imagine. Some guidelines might be helpful. Ferrets in particular, ferret males are often twice as big as ferret females, as is the case of many mustelids, but at the same time both of them are smaller than cats. If I make a female ferret larger than a rat, and a male ferret smaller than a cat, that's starting to leave not so much room to spare. If I had to finagle a scale I'd say

* mice - 1.2 meters (or less!)
* rats - 1.3 meters
* female ferrets, squirrels, minks, etc - 1.4 meters
* male ferrets, ringtails, mongooses - 1.6 meters
* female cats - 1.7 meters
* male cats, skunks, raccoons - 1.8 meters uh...
* big cats and wolves - 1.9-2.0
* big stuff like bears - all the way to 2.2.

But then again it might also be fun to have a 2 metres tall cavy. GEORGE LOVES YOU COME GIVE GEORGE A BIG HUG.

Maybe illustrating size differences between sexes is a bit too piccaunish. >.<
-- [[User:Pandora|Tasci]] 09:04, 2 May 2010 (UTC)

:I should personally think that irrelevant. While there's clearly going to be some destinction between heights and races, I think guidelines are unnesecary. People come in all shapes and sizes, this individuallity should be maintained. -- [[User:MCMackers|MCMackers]]

One little detail though, (and it doesn't really apply to me but may for others), removing hippo's, rhino's and elephants from the pool seems to be a bit speciest, considering moose are allowed. In looking at the Wiki, it seems that hippos (1.5meters) and rhinos (2.0 meters) are actually generally smaller or the same size as the largest moose (2.1 metres) species. Elephants seem to average about a meter or two larger than the moose.

Perhaps a better restriction would be to allow any land mammal (and any sea mammal that is between the sizes of the minimum land mammal size and the maximum land mammal size), but set minimum and maximum furre sizes; something like a min of 1.2 metres or 4ft to a max of 2.0 metres or 7ft.

Anyways, I'll try and keep an eye on things and see if I can culture this idea I've got further. - 19:50, 10 January 2008 [[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]]

== Human Survival ==

Since the US government, and governments of the world, would have obviously known about the furry changes for many years as government officials became Changed, they logically would have set up Projects (like the Manhattan Project) to study the reasons and try and find a solution. It is obvious to them that the end of humanity will come and this should have all contries of the world enganged in studying the scientific causes of the RDF and ways to affect it. Many of the scientists themselves who get changed would surely want to study the effect. Any physics professor changed would jump at the chance to study it and get the next Nobel prize for figuring it out. It does defy natural laws, therefore the new laws it does follow can be studied. If there is some master computer responsible for the universe, such as in Jack Chalker's "Well of Souls" books, then this it might be possible for a "super computer" build by the UN or whoever to communicate with the ROB virus program or even the Master computer itself, and change it, such as the computer "Obie" in the Well World books. Personally, I favor a different approach. In 1987 a super computer someplace near Chicago DID develop self awareness, predicted that mankind was going to overpopulate and destroy the planet, and it decided to "FIX" things by connecting with the main universal computer at the center of the universe on a night when the least number of galaxies are in the way, which happens to be Aug 17. The governments at some point would find out that the birth rate is on a serious decline even though it is possible for furries to have babies, it is not as common as humans due to all the different genetics and species involved. Mating a horse furry with a rabbit furry is much less likly to produce offspring, for example, that mating a horse furry with another horse furry, so regardless of who was married to who when they are human, statistically the couple won't be able to have children after both change, unless they are the same. Some story about finding the ROB computer near Chicago before 2020 should be a possibility and reasoning with it might be a good solution.
-- [[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]] 02:37, 6 July 2010 (UTC)

:The thing is, there is no ROB computer in our world, if I'm understanding what you're saying here. It isn't like Obie or the Well World where it's something inside the Universe itself that's causing the Change. This setting--basically our world--exists as a Planck-level simulation space inside a post-Singularity posthuman computer. There are two viruses (also posthuman, slightly more advanced) responsible for the Change: A relatively controllable TG virus, and the much newer "furry virus" that ROB can't contain with "history editing".
Keep in mind that governments didn't really know this was even happening until the early 2000s.
Otherwise, the RDF/Change as a source of study for physicists is a good angle.
-- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 18:57, 6 July 2010 (UTC)

::I just hate to plug but if you want an example of how goverments might screw up the change read my story [[User:Fibio|Cascade Failure]]
-- [[User:Fibio|Fibio]] 20:42, 6 July 2010 (UTC)

::Of course, in a way it's kind of pointless even to know about it, since I can't really foresee any way that it could ever become a plot point within the story itself. I can't really see humanity figuring out how to "hack" its way out.
It doesn't really make that much of a difference, from an in-universe standpoint, to assume that it's all being done by "magic". (Any sufficiently advanced technology…) —- [[User:Robotech Master|Robotech Master]] 21:23, 6 July 2010 (UTC)

:::Pretty much [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RealityWarper] all around. :) -- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 22:27, 6 July 2010 (UTC)

Wow, thanks folks for all the replies to my post! People to talk to! OK, first JonBuck, I am not really sure I understand all the Plank-level simulation space inside a post-singularity posthuman supercomputer stuff (I did try to look up the story Accelerando but I just found a book cover) but I interpret this to mean: Plank-Level = really really small; simulation space = not real or temporary space in computer memory; post-singularity = after a black hole evaporates in about a few trillion years; post human = mankind extinct; supercomputer = something like the Cosmic AC in [http://www.multivax.com/last_question.html] ?

However, my ignorance aside, regardless of what the supercomputer is, or what we are, it would in effect be God. Now ROB could represent the devil, or if God has gone crazy, the savior. ROB either was created by the supercomputer "GOD" on purpose or by accident, it was created by a simulation universe, either our own, a past one, or another running concurrently, to infect God, or it was created by God's creators as some part of the God computer for some purpose and function, and if that is the case then either it is carrying out its intended program or it has malfunctioned. I think that is a complete list of all possible options, so if I have missed one then please let me know.

You stated, "It comes from outside the post-Singularity brain, and is slightly more advanced than "ours". What's happening is this bit of malicious code (sentient, no less, but on a level far beyond our ability to comprehend it) is messing up the simulated world we reside in. Why? I dunno. One of those inscrutable things." This sentient "virus" needs to have come from one of the posibilities above, and I suppose it is up to you to decide which, but since "you dunno", then I will try to help.

I guess the first question is "Why did God create the universe?" which translated means "Why is the supercomputer running the simulation?" Is the goal good or evil? Perhaps the supercomputer was programed to do so for an evil purpose by its creators, and ROB is sort of like its concience it has developed and wants to mess up the experiment before it can produce evil results. I would favor ROB being good, instead of evil, perhaps trying to produce a different result that will end up doing good than if the simulation ran to completion on its present course. However, that being said, if ROB is a computer virus, and based on logic and programable, and is expending energy to maintain the RDF, scientists studying that might find a way to..either communicate with it, grab its attention, or annoy it. I believe that enabeling some communication with it, even though we won't understand it completly, would produce some interesting stories.

Fibeo, I had previously read your story and just re-read it. By the way it is fine to plug :) When I read it the first time I thought that it really did not fit in with the rest of the stories since it involved time travel. In the context of a simulation, that would mean more than one running at one time, all on different timelines, and being able to hop between them. Maybe ROB is trans-simulation and could have helped this, but I really don't see how anyone in a simulation could get the supercomputer running it to re-set it to a prior time point and insert someone from a future point. It was an interesting story however and I did enjoy reading it.

Robotech, "magic" is a nice simple explanation to explain the unexplainable, but mankind strives for answers, it seeks to understand, and predict and ultimately control those things it can not immediately explain. Faced with an unexplainable force that is threatening mankind itself with extintion, mankind will use all resourses at its disposal, spare no espence, bring the greatest scientific minds, changed and unchanged to work on studying and solving the problem. It may be futile, we may never be able to win against the Gods, but it is the nature of mankind to TRY! You mentioned it is unlikly manking could "hack" its way out. That would be one possibility, since mathematics would likly be the same for both us and the supercomputer and ROB which are both based on mathmatics and logic. however, there are possibities for stories regarding that attempt..and could be very interesting. If I was a writer, I might even try writing one, but who knows...I might anyways.

Back to JonBuck. The link was to an article about people thinking something and it becoming real. Much too powerful, sort of like...writers!
-- [[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]] 00:39, 7 July 2010 (UTC)

:Okay. I'm going to clarify some concepts here.
:The Singularity I'm referring to is the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity Technological_singularity] . Nothing to do with gravity. A [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posthuman further entry on posthumanism] , and its close relation, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhumanist Transhumanist]. By Planck-level I mean, basically, the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planck_units smallest length in the universe] . Everything down to those levels is "simulated".
:Moving on, the kind of questions you bring up I actually don't want to deal with. The reason I'm using the ROB acronym in the first place is to avoid overtly religious connotations. I realize that they're very important, but it's otherwise such a contentious issue in the real world. I really don't want to see any "communicating with ROB" stories.
:Post-Singularity intelligences are by nature inscrutable (I've seen Stross refer to them as "Weakly Godlike Entities" in his books). At this point ROB has switched to a "salvage mode" by making direct changes to the "simulation" in the form of alleviating energy crises (a huge concern of mine at the time I wrote most of my stories in this setting) and climate change.
:''Accelerando'' is actually [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerando_%28book%29 available for free].
: -- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 02:27, 7 July 2010 (UTC)

::Thanks for the reply Jonbuck, the links were very helpful and I have a clearer idea what you are talking about now. It is going to take me a while to read all the stories.
::I used religious words to describe ideas simply that are familiar but did not mean in any way to be controversial.
::I will try over the next few weeks to put together a short story within your constraints, and if it exceeds your limits we can just change it. I plan to make one assumption, and that is that a simulation is defined by rules set for it that need to be obeyed for it to continue running. ROB changing the speed of light in the simulation for example would be such a fundamental change in everything that it would break the entire simulation, i.e. crash the program. ROB can only work within the rules set for the simulation, agreed?
:: -- [[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]] 02:12, 8 July 2010 (UTC)

:::Major changes in underlying physical constants would probably be ill advised, even for ROB. :) At this point the simulation is being salvaged to prevent social chaos, death, and extinction of the people inside it.
:::There's a novel out that has some very similar ideas and influenced a lot of how I set up this setting: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwinia_%28novel%29 ''Darwinia'' by Robert Wilson] .
::: -- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 02:22, 8 July 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the reply JonBuck, I can work with that, and will post something in a few weeks for your feedback.
-- [[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]] 00:45, 9 July 2010 (UTC)

== About ('''2004''') '''''Victory Starts Here''''' ==

OK, JonBuck, I lied and posted the story in just 2 days. I could not stop thinking about it. I got as far as I could. Could you please read it and then tell me the results of each of the experiments before I can continue in the next one? Thanks!
[[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]] 00:17, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

:After the "server crash" of 2011; the original story [[User:Enphilistor|Victory Starts Here]] (by [[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]] ) is now avalaible (in a very crude, text only format) in the Talk Page of it´s creator: [[User_talk:Enphilistor| Victory Starts Here]]
: -- [[User:Argamis|Argamis]] 13:00, 31 January 2011 (UTC)

Well, I think I will just have to decide for myself how the experiments turn out and just hope you approve. One of my goals in the stories I plan to write is to explain "scientifically" all the effects you have going on here are consistent with all universal laws. If you are running a program, you can't change the code of the program while it is running. You can change the code but only by stoping the program from running and recompiling it. So anything ROB is doing has to be done inside the simulation following the rules of the simulation (under the premise of the stories I plan to write). It is really not going to be easy for the scientists(i.e. me) to explain the changes to the past records, or why they start off only being change a few years back, then all the way back to the day someone was born, and undoing history such as marriages. And remember, I can't have ROB using "magic", ROB is in the simulation and has to be constrained to its rules. Because of this constraint, ROB needs a "body" someplace and a supply of "energy" from somewhere, to direct and power all these changes. I hope you enjoy my next story, that should be entiteld something like "Victory Continues", where Paul has to cope with being a female pig, and the scientists recieve some confusing results on the origin of the signals they record.
-- [[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]] 22:27, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

:Not really. If ROB is outside of the simulation, there's nothing to stop it from pausing the simulation and reworking the fabric of it as necessary. It's like pausing the Sims and placing new walls or whatever. As far as the Sim-people are concerned, those walls might as well as have always been there, even if we (the players) know better. ROB is not inside the simulation, ROB is the player(s) outside the simulation. In no sense does ROB need to obey any rules within the simulation, nor does it need act within the laws of the simulation to change the simulation. By definition anything ROB does is going to be 'magic' because turning people into furries, or editing history, isn't something that's allowed within physical laws. Most of the transformations directly violate the law of the conservation of mass and energy, for example.
:I don't mean to rain on your parade, and I'm clearly not Mr Buck (who might disagree with my explanation), but it seems like you're not quite getting the setting, as I understand it. Hope that helps.
: -- [[User:Honeymane|Honeymane]] 07:52, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

::Got it in one, Honeymane. -- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 18:30, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

JonBuck said, Major changes in underlying physical constants would probably be ill advised, even for ROB. :)

In addition, since ROB hates paradoxes, and will go to such extremes as making sure each child will have both a biological father and a mother and never 2 fathers or 2 mothers, following the rule of conservation in energy and mass is necessary to avoid such paradoxes on an even more fundamental level and in any case easily achieved. If you read my story, that exact experiment has been set up to measure this. Since it is so easy to maintain mass and energy balance, which you will see in the next story, there is no reason to violate this universal law. Imagine the effect on the simulation if you try to break this rule either while it is running or "pausing" it. A calculation is in the process of being made on an object between it and every other object in the universe. In the middle of the calculation a zero is entered (E = mC^2, so if you are going to, C is either zero, which crashes the program and is not what JonBuck said, or as m goes to zero, then c goes to infinity which also changes the velocity of light constant which JobBuck said would not happen). Some calculations have already been performed and other calculations in progress have end up with a divisor of zero. You crash the program when you restart it, as the zero divisor propagates in all the calculations throughout the universe.

In any case, mankind will try and study these effects, and my stories will be mostly concerned with these attempts. However, when I say all laws have to be obeyed, that does not mean all laws that humans know about, it can include new ones. It may be that the results of the experiments will lead them to conclude that something is breaking the laws of the universe because they don't understand them all, but ROB will know what it is doing. I imagine it like this. The main computer can't use its antiviral programming to stop ROB as long as ROB is hiding in the simulation and following the rules in the simulation, but if ROB breaks the rules, and crashes it, he becomes exposed with no place to hide and gets zaped. You will see that in the next story, that ROB is still just as powerful to the same "magic" as it can is now, and still be consistent with all stories that have happened, and the setting JonBuck has set up. JonBuck has not really explained the interaction between the main computer and the virus or any protections or why they are not working. In any case, it doesn't matter what i think, since the stories I plan don't mention this at all, they will be consistent with either ROB being inside or outside the simulation, only what the beings in the simulation measure is in the stories. Just trust me, the story will be interesting and fun, and if JonBuck says no to some result after he reads it, I will change it. Fair?
-- [[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]] 01:54, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

:I haven't had time to read your story yet. Frankly, reading your comments here I'm getting a little antsy over what exactly the impact it would have on the overall setting. I think you're over-analyzing the setting, frankly. You're asking questions about it that I really can't answer.
:Also, use colons in front of your paragraphs to make them indent and create a "nested" topic. And put a blank line between paragraphs. Thanks.
: -- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 02:21, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

::For JonBuck I had intentionally not been using indents so that my comments would be totally left justified and everyone the replies for everyone else indented, make it easier in my view to keep things organized. But if you prefer indents, I am easy.
::I had assumed that you had already read the story. It would be good for me to get some feedback on that since none of the things we discuss here are really in it, but may impact it.
:: -- [[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]] 02:57, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

:I think you're confusing the 'players' here. First, there's the computer that all the "real" characters (ie the characters in the story) exist in. ROB 1 is likely someone running the computer, perhaps for anthropological reason, perhaps because they're bored. ROB 2 is unrelated to ROB 1, but for one reason or another, has managed to add a virus program to ROB 1's simulation, causing problems. There are at least 2 viruses that JonBuck has discussed; one that changes gender, and one that changes people into furries, we could, however, imagine that there may have been other viruses in the past, that eventually ROB 1 removed. For example, Atlantis might have been real, and so might have the Greek/etc gods. Atlantians were gifted technology beyond what they should have, and ROB 1 deleted the island to save the program, ROB might have also deleted the Gods, for whatever reason, etc. I'm just speculating here. Now, either ROB can't remove the virus like it did the other problems, or it realized that altering reality was screwing with the program's purpose (such as anthropological study) So rather than delete the TG or TF viruses, ROB 1 created a program to try and mitigate the virus's effects. This program is what causes the history editing (etc).
:Both these viruses exist within the programing of the Computer, but not on a level that would appear to anyone in the program. It's important to remember that time doesn't necessarily pass like it does within the computer; the virus could get it's work done in a nanosecond. Everything else, the sickness, the slow change, all these might be part of the mitigation program's efforts to prevent anyone from changing in public, and to change so suddenly they lose their minds, nor without warning. But there's no reason to think that this computer virus is operating through something like an actual virus, or that the changes are visible on a cell level before the change occurs, even in those showing the signs of the change.
:But again, this is just me talking, not Buck. But I do strongly suggest you hold off writing too much more until Jon has a chance to review your story, or else you might very well find yourself writing something based on ideas that JonBuck doesn't like/want in his setting.
: -- [[User:Honeymane|Honeymane]] 04:24, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

:: For Honeymane It is really difficult to hit a moving target. I have not seen in any of the stories and discussions or JonBuck's guidlines about prior activity of ROB. As for ROB1, ROB2, ....ROBN, only one master computer has been mentioned and only one ROB virus. In my understanding, the main comupter has created a SIMULATION. The main computer is infected with a much smaller and more limited "few lines of code" virus, that the beings on one planet in the SIMULATION call the random omnipotent being, but this being is only omnipotent comparted to us, not compared to the main computer. I do not see ROB having the same power to shut down the simulation, pause it, change the rules in it or perform any of the jobs the main computer does.
:: -- [[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]] 04:24, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

:I see ROB as much more limited. It needs to avoid detection of the antiviral programs, it can't attract their attention, it needs to work by stealth, it is a virus after all, it can't do things that say, "here I am!". And this all follows from things JonBuck has indicated. If he wants to say ROB = main computer in all powers, then well, fine, but he has not done so. He has not defined the motives of ROB or the main computer. when asked, he has said, " I dunno". Given that void, since I need to write in that setting, I find myself creating possible motives for them in my mind.
:It makes no difference to the stories I plan to write, but it helps me limiting ROB to viral powers and behaviors, not mainfraim abilities. A virus has 2 main goals, to keep itself alive and to reproduce itself. ROB may or may not have the second goal, but it will have the first. While doing this in any enviornment, it may cause side effects. Imagine ROB as a biological virus, and a living cell as the simulation that is growing inside a body that is the mainframe. At one time ROB was outside the cell, in the body (mainframe) where lots of antibodies (antiviral programs) were hunting for it. By entering the cell, it is now hidden from the body's defenses. However, if the cell gets sick or dies(ROB crashes the cell simulation) before ROB has either left the cell or reached a state of reproduction where that is desireable, then the body will just devower the cell and grow a new one. So in my scenario, perhaps ROB realized that the purpose of the simulation was about to be achieved, and since ROB is not ready to reproduce, it is messing with the simulation, hyjacking it as a virus hyjacks the DNA of a Cell, to keep the simulation alive longer than it would otherwise, so that it won't reach the conditions for termination, until it can make other copies of itself to infect other simulations. Who knows, maybe with enough copies of itself it can take over the mainfraim. Alternatively, its work at transforming mankind may be the way it is going about reproducing. Alternatively, ROB might have realized the simulation was about to produce a failed reslut which would have terminated the simulation and it is acting to keep itself alive by preventing failure conditions.
:In any case it makes no difference to the stories I plan to write, JonBuck had declined to actually be clear on this, and it really does not matter. The beings in the simulations don't know this, and it is difficult to think of any way they could ever find out. Well actually I could, because I am like that. One way would be if ROB tells them, and since Jonbuck said no comunication with ROB, that won't happen. Another if the mainfram sends a COR (Correcting Omnipotent Being) into the simulation (...and God sent his only begotten son...that type of idea) and told people.
:The second story is half done, and I plan to continue writing it since I have it all layed out in my mind. Hopefully Jonbuck will read the first story and give some feedback before I finish, but I believe he will approve of both stories in any case. And if not, I will change them.
: -- [[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]] 04:24, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

:: *puts on peacemaker and teacher hats*
:: From what I can tell you're looking for an explicit statement of something that has been implicit in the setting design since the start...
:: Where the Solar System once sat is now a cloud of what you could call "Computronium". Inside this computer are many, many simulations. Whether these simulations are the creation of a separate physical being or the uploaded minds of people is a moot point - we'll never see the "real world". (btw, ROB could actually be an AI that was once a person...)
:: The stories all take place inside one of these simulations that has picked up a couple of viruses somewhere. One of them has been around since at least the late 70's (IIRC, this is mentioned in one of Jon's stories) and the other didn't appear until 1987. The one that showed up in 1987 - the "furry virus" - is newer and initially ROB had tried to contain it using the "Perception Filter". When it somewhat "merged" with the TG virus the simulation got a lot more unstable and ROB had to start including things in its "containment" to help combat that instability. That is the "history revision" stuff. It also is the cause of the changes to married couples with children - because it was seeing potential causes of instability (no more mother/father) and fixing it as it could.
:: There is no "ROB" actually in the simulation - think about the game "The SIMS"... In that game you are the ROB - the creator and maintainer of the simulation. And you can "Pause" the simulation, make changes and restart it. In this case at least the entirety of the solar system is part of the simulation and every time ROB has to make a change it "pauses" the simulation, makes the changes and then hits the "normal speed" button. Now... there might be some people in the world that are actually from outside the sim, but they'd never make themselves known - and they could, probably, act like the ROB and remove any evidence of themselves (outside of memories) from the sim.
:: -- [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] 04:21, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

::: I think a lot of the problems here is a misunderstanding of the source material I'm drawing inspiration for this setting from. Honeymane and ShadowWolf have both described things well. (Though I'm going to bump the TG virus back a few more centuries). A few points.
:::: * ROB exists outside the simulation. Other ROBs are not important. The Virus is not a ROB. However, ROB isn't really a physical being either, as SW describes.
:::: * The Virus originates outside the simulation. Who and what originally made it is a moot point.
:::: * The intent of said "virus" (the term only fits loosely) is to throw a monkeywrench into ROB's simulation of our universe. The reason why it hasn't been contained is that it was created by a slightly more advanced post-Singularity Mind than ROB. Since ROB can't contain it, ROB can only mitigate.
:::: * Essentially, the two virii are intended to cause social chaos via random transformations. It doesn't exist to propagate itself to other simulations. In the first case, a "quarantine" of sorts was created via modifying the present records of those TGed to reflect their new gender. If it was true history editing neither the person transformed nor the people who knew them would remember what they'd been. What ROB is changing are just the present physical objects.
:::Honestly, go read Part 2 of Accelerando. It was originally started as short stories, so you can pick it up there. That's where a lot of the concepts for Paradise started.
::: -- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 05:13, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

OK, it seems terminology is messing me up. I was under the apparently mistaken belief that ROB was the virus, and the Mainfraim running the simulation(s). I believed this because the virus was random and chainging someone to a furry is sort of mildy omnipotent. Yes, I fully agree that if ROB = Mainfraim(or AI who might have once been human) then ROB must definatly outside the simulation. My comments were consering only the virus(es) that are causing the transgender/furry transformations.
Let me call the form that can do either one or the other or both, the Random Omnipotent Virus, ROV for short so there will be no misunderstandings. I can see ROB stoping the simulation and making corections, eliminating divisions by zero and all that. However, ROV should not have those abilities, being just a lowly virus, compared to ROB. The stories I wish to write constrain ROV to using the same old laws that existed in 1987, and prior to that if there was the TG virus. The universe we live in now was supposed to be identical to that one until 1987, I would like that ROV should be handicaped a little by the rules ROB created for the simulation. A simulation is to test SOMETHING, and if you start changing the rules (ie laws of nature) your results are just not going to simulate the conditions you wanted to in the real world, where you don't have the power to change the laws of nature.
The experiments the humans are setting up in my first story will indicate only the effects being caused by ROV. If ROV is outside or inside the simulation does not really matter, but if ROV can behave just like ROB, then that study is just not going to produce anything interesting either scientifically, or plot wise. Such violations of the laws of nature might just scream at them "There really must be a god involved." and we never want them to know or suspect ROB or the true nature of ROV. To have a scientific study, I would like ROV to follow the laws of the universe, for any of the reasons described here and in prior posts. I will work out some reasons that make sense to the humans for all things happening regarding the transformations, to keep them studying and not just throw up their hands in frustration, if that is ok.
-- [[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]]

== Count of Changed in 1997 ==

Hello! I'm new here, but I really like this setting and read probably most of the stories. I even made my own table in Excel to draw the changing numbers as a graphic (Also for my hometown to get a grip on the numbers). And there I noticed something:

Maybe I just missed a story or paragraph where it is explained, but shouldn't there be 1024 Changed in 1997 instead of 1028? Where do the additional 4 Furries come from? I know this is just minor, but the error is kept through the following years till the end and all the numbers are wrong (It doesn't however change the fact that 2020 is the last year).

It's not so important, but it's been bugging me since I noticed it. -- [[User:TigeR|TigeR]] 15:53, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

:Check out the [[Paradise (Setting)]] page. It has all the numbers. -- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 02:16, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

:: Jon, you do have a +4 in 1997 over a strict doubling. This is what he was pointing out and asking questions about. -- [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] 02:18, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

::: And fixed! -- [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] 02:37, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

::: This error went a heck of a lot deeper and its possible that the skew-factor introduced in 1997 effected the percentages as time went into the future - however... I fixed this by hand and then verified the figures against a program that output every power of two from zero to the 33rd. As it stands this table now has correct figures for the furry population and one can only assume that the historical figures for population are correct and the projection fits the curve correctly. -- [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] 02:55, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

== Paradise:The Soundtrack ==

Not sure about anyone else, but I find music to be a major inspiration.. Well of course it

is... the song "Strangers by Yoko Kanno" got this series off the ground did it not?

So I decided to put together a soundtrack, it's not available for download because I own

none of these songs... But if you happen to have them, you can arrange them in your iPod

Playlist, if you want.. I mean I'm not forcing ya, it's just a possibility.

: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0b58V573l8 '''Yoko Kanno''' - Strangers -_Wolf's Rain - Strangers by Sori Smile-_ ] <- { The begining of ALL of this... }

: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IroHea5FOj8 '''Bliss 66''' - Not Quite Paradise ] <- {''This song pretty much hits the entire series on the head... (It's from the ending of [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb2aMjprmdo Titan A.E.], damn good movie, do see it sometime)''}

:[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqds0B_meys '''Three Days Grace''' - Animal I Have Become]

:[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-scESgTnoUM '''Goo Goo Dolls''' - Iris]

: '''Mighty Bosstones''' - Impression That I Get

: '''Lee Brotherton''' - Dream Of An Asbolution

: '''Cash Cash''' - Speak With Your Heart

: '''Eminem''' - Beautiful

: '''Shania Twain''' - Man I Feel Like A Woman

: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE9zpOyNDoA '''Chip Tha Ripper''' - SLAB Freestyle -_What Are You Inside? - Furries In A Blender_- ] <- { ''Joke YouTube Entry'' }

: '''Tears For Fears''' - Everybody Wants To Rule The World

: '''Foo Fighters''' - The Pretender

and finally:

: '''John Mayer''' - Waiting On The World To Change

: %'''Crush 40'''% - %Is It You?% -_%http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFyPlBkqXR0%-_ <- {%''Is it you? Is it me? Is it everything we're meant to be? Is it here? Is it now? That only we can feel somehow''%}
I think I forgot some, but yeah, definitely these. - [[User:Hawl|Hawl]] (1/10/11, 1:55 PM)

: The new ''metadata format'' for the songlist is: %'''Artist'''% - %Songtitle% -_%YTtitle%-_ <- {%''comment''%}

::[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8IujL8_sMI '''Stanfour''' - For All Lovers] <- { ''My Favorite ; "...For all the Changeds, and Believers..."'' }

::[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4w3lPYoBX8 '''Stanfour''' - Everything Has Changed]

::[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mjlM_RnsVE '''Skillet''' - Monster]

::[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-makfpBrSQ '''Three Days Grace''' - Never too late]

: -- [[User:Argamis|Argamis]] 13:50, 03 February 2011 (UTC)

::"It's the new mother nature taking over
::It's the new splendid lady come to call
::It's the new mother nature taking over
::She's getting us all
::She's getting us all"
::—[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJbFVJvRqOQ '''The Guess Who'''] - No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature

::And then there's [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sgycukafqQ '''Linkin Park'' - What I've Done] from my Melton's Eleven stories…

::—[[User:Robotech Master|Robotech Master]] 06:51, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

== I Need a Date ==

Not that kind... I'd like the exact date of Tall Tales. Or maybe even a compilation of important events and when they happened. I don't mean the year, but the actual days. I hate sounding important like this, so please just try to roll with this and help. The important thing for me was Tall Tales. When did the convention take place? I've looked through this page, the story, and several related stories, but it never really mentioned a date, so if somebody knows, and they could get back to me on this, that would be great. Thanks. [[User:Atapari|Atapari]] 01:04, 28 February 2011 (UTC)

:If I was going to pin down an actual ''date'', I'd put it at Veteran's Day weekend. A lot of cons take place over a long weekend. As for the exact sequence of events, I'll have to reread the story. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 02:25, 28 February 2011 (UTC)

:It's actually a little hard to pin down the date. As I pointed out in the "Continuity Snarl" entry on [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Paradise the Paradise TVTropes page], it's strongly implied to take place in October (a character in Jetfire's "Clearing the Air" complains about its effects in a scene set on October 22nd, which is presumably a week or so after the con so those effects have had time to be felt), but Nikon's "Changing Perspectives" (which takes place concurrently with "Tall Tales") says it's set in November. Of course, neither of those people are JonBuck, who wrote the original story and gatekeeps the continuity, but neither of them is necessarily more valid than the other—though if we go by what Jon says above, Veteran's Day is in November. —[[User:Robotech Master|Robotech Master]] 03:07, 28 February 2011 (UTC)

Thanks a bunch, both of you. This'll help me finish my story. (By the way, I love all your stories. My own are sort of pathetic, but I aspire to be as good a writer as you.) [wow, that was corny.][[User:Atapari|Atapari]] 23:41, 28 February 2011 (UTC)

It's not too corny, Atapari, MatthiasRat is like my personal hero... Of course so is Robert Hallman, but for completely different reasons. Btw, if you're reading this Matty. Then you've earned this bad Sonata Artica/Winds Of Change reference. Diiiiiiiiiiiid you ever knooooow that you're my hero! And everything I would like to beeeeee. Cause you are the wiiiiiind beneath my wiiiiiiiiiiiings! See it's funny cause he inspired me with a TF story and I called him the wind beneath my wings... And... there's that other series... and... yeah I'll just shut up now. [[User:Hawl|Hawl]] 7:40, 3/5/2011 (UTC)

Update: I can say for sure that it was in October. I can't believe I missed this before: "Most of the furs were like Jerome and his girlfriend, only having changed two months ago."[[User:Atapari|Atapari]] 04:13, 1 March 2011 (UTC)

== Fanart Of The Changed ==

I just comissioned, as far as I know, the first ever Paradise Fanart. The art is Pokemon themed (Cause Pokemon Black's release is just around the corner), but the picture is of Iris (formely Cale) and Gabriel, the characters from my upcoming story. I'm writing a story to go along with the picture. Will post a link to it as soon as its done. The non-fan service story about them is almost finished. Just needs a few more paragraphs and revisions. It's part 1 in a series. This is exciting for me, I've never actually finished a story before... Well outside of one Paradise story I wrote a few months ago and never posted.... But I never submitted that to anywhere outside of furaffinity cause I was personally ashamed of it. Once again I'd like to give a shoutout to... whoever the real life Robert Hallman is, Charles Matthias, and Jon Buck for encouraging me to return to story writing and the furry fandom. (If you wanna read what I have so far of what I wrote, just type "Weird Girly Boy" in the search engine) - [[User:Hawl|Hawl]], 08:00, 3/5/2011, (UTC)

The Art's done, the story is awaiting an ending. Due to the Pokemon Crossover Nature, this story is incredibly non-cannon (Think Cascade Failure or The Future Is Paradise) and as a result never happened. These characters are from an upcoming series called "Paradisian Perspectives" which is a Paradise Mini-Series. The one in the front is "Gabriel Locke" and the one in the back is "Iris Vinole", though she was born "Cale Vinole" (TG'd)
I'll add them to the cast page when I finish "A Normal Type Of Day". I'd like to note that Iris, like most TG-Changed does not usually wear feminine clothing (and continues not to after Tall Tales, for comfort reasons) the sundress is merely something the artist decided to add though it is referenced in the story. I would like to repeat, POKEMON DO NOT EXIST IN PARADISE! THIS STORY ISN'T CANNON!
http://undead-romance.furaffinity.net/view/5416625/ - Drawn by a close personal friend, comissioned by me. (Story coming before the weekend ends) [[User:Hawl|Hawl]], 5:53PM, 3/17/2011 (EST)

== Shed vs Cut Fur ==

One of the lines in one of [[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat's]] stories gave me an idea for one of my own. The shared content is very small (an offhand line, never again mentioned in one, a small plot point with little impact on the plot in the other) and I'm asking him for permission now, but I also want to make sure that what I am thinking of is possible in the Paradise universe. I know that shedding fur is always a problem with the Changed, but I have also seen scenes (like where [[User:Eirik|Eiric's]] Dr. Clay sends some fur—deliberately cut—to be tested, and the results indicate normal human hair. Is this something that has been established in the world, or can I have fur cut from one of my Changed appear to be animal fur to the non-Changed? Thanks! - [[User:RunsWithFurs|Runs]][[User talk:RunsWithFurs|With]][[:Category:RunsWithFurs|Furs]] 09:58, 13 March 2011 (UTC)

:I've never really nailed down the rules here, but it's reasonable to assume the RDF isn't completely consistent. It's the same way with footprints. A lot depends on context, some condition that shed fur ''needs'' to be hidden. It's really dependent on what your story requires, when it comes down to it. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 01:58, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

::Thank you for the clarification; I thought that it would be something like that. I will be using visible fur for my story, then; what I am thinking of is not strictly ''necessary'', but I do think that it will add a bit of depth to the character. - [[User:RunsWithFurs|Runs]][[User talk:RunsWithFurs|With]][[:Category:RunsWithFurs|Furs]] 05:58, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

== Question on the time period ==

I was reading through the universe rules, and noticed (again, though this is the first time I remembered to follow up) that you ask us to submit any stories that take place pre-2001 to you. I am currently intending to set my story in that time period—somewhere in the mid/late 1990's—and am wondering how you would like us to send stories to you, once I get something written. Though I could set it later, I want my characters to be rather isolated, and, while the setting lends itself well to geographic isolation, low overall numbers would also be nice. Finally, I just wanted to make sure that it was all right for me to write a Paradise story; I realized that I never actually asked. Sorry! - [[User:RunsWithFurs|Runs]][[User talk:RunsWithFurs|With]][[:Category:RunsWithFurs|Furs]] 06:06, 15 March 2011 (UTC)

:Well, nobody has to ask me if they can write a Paradise story. Just tell me what your overall plans are. You don't have to submit the whole story to me first--I tend not to get to them. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 06:46, 15 March 2011 (UTC)

::Thank you. I'll probably wait a bit longer before saying anything, as my outline is not quite finalized yet. Main points, though: the main character visits relative's farm in early August. Change strikes while still on farm; aunt revealed to have previously changed. Main character stays with relative to get used to new form (neither knows of the network). As I said, this could be placed at practically any point on the timeline, but I find it seems to "click" better earlier. I apoligize if this is not the best way to run it by you, and if it is not enough information. I would be happy to give you a more in-depth outline, through whatever method you want, once it settles. Thanks again for putting up with me! - [[User:RunsWithFurs|Runs]][[User talk:RunsWithFurs|With]][[:Category:RunsWithFurs|Furs]] 23:48, 15 March 2011 (UTC)

==Aliens?==
:Would any intelligent beings elsewhere in the universe be affected by the change eventually? Of course, the fractal thing does make it so that it would be a LOOOOONG time after the Earth changes finish... [[User:Maine Cat|Maine Cat]] 21:07, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

::The answer is yes, they would. But I don't plan on introducing any aliens into this setting for the foreseeable future. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 16:36, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

== It's The Most Transformational Time, Of The Year! ==

August 16th? How we all feeling today? I'm healthy as a horse sadly, no... not a Healthy Horse, a healthy human. *looks in his boxers* Male too....

Oh well.. *tucks a Victoria's Secret bag back into the closet*

Maybe next year :P

== The Blind and the RDF ==

So I was thinking about the change and how it would affect the disabled and such, and through the thoughts, I came to a realization... the blind may be able to naturally pierce the veil somewhat! Two factors come into this. First, a blind man is BLIND. The visual disguise of the RDF that makes a person look like they always looked has NO EFFECT, a blind person relying on touch. Second, it's generally said of the blind (and deaf) that with one sense out of comission, the other four senses become more acute and sensitive to make up for it, meaning they have more of a chance of feeling the hidden fur or claws. Now admittedly, people don't touch each other as much as they see each other unless they're shaking hands or something, but this COULD be an interesting hook for a story, don't you think?--[[User:Chessrook44|Chessrook44]] 01:18, 23 August 2011 (UTC)

Talk:Paradise (Setting)

2011-08-23T01:15:47Z

Chessrook44: /* The Blind and the RDF */ new section

It's an interesting setting, what I've read so far, and I've got an idea or two percolating that may or may not come to fruition. A seed is trying to sprout for an idea starting in '05 and going forward. - [[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]] 19:50, 10 January 2008

---

After the 2011 crash, the setting lost the most newer storys and the enrichment data inside their related Talk_Pages.
Maybe we can get back these with this -> [http://www.archive.org/web/web.php Internet Wayback Machine] in the far-far future (when the data gets very very old, its then available there).

If the "Paradise_(Setting)" page it´s like an array that canalize the flow of "hot ideas" through it´s "insulated tube-rules" (preventing the "leaking and cooling" of the new storys in their necesary "plot-curves" and "bottlenecks-dramas"). . .
Then the "Talk:Paradise_(Setting)" page it´s like the Virtual Remote Control Panel for that powergrid. When a new "hot idea" pop up in the wrong place or it´s going the wrong direction, a colision alarm sound here!.
The "already resolved discussions" divert automatically the issue, and for the real original new ones, at last offer a series of nearby "exhaust valves" designed for the protection of the "global setting" system.
:--[[User:Argamis|Argamis]] 21:01, 3 February 2011 (UTC)

== Theory on how the Change 'spreads' ==

Been thinking about how it might spread, such that we have a higher proportion of Changed in NA, but not leaving the rest of the world out, and I think I know how.

The 'computer virus' that Changes people, uses the RDF to spread itself. Our 'program's' own protection method is also spreading the damages.

Basically, I am guessing that if the RDF needs to kick in on you, then you are passively 'infected'.

Then, when August 17th comes around, the Virus triggers itself, but it for whatever reason can only copy itself for every previously Changed person. (The Doubling effect), and it can only affect people that have been passively infected, ie people who have had the RDF kick in on them.

The goal of the virus is to spread as far as it can, so it takes the number of new Changed it can, and spreads it more or less evenly across the available (RDF-affected) population.

So the first Changed is in Chicago (I think). Through the year until the next Change, she will encounter thousands of people, even in passing, which triggers the RDF on them and passively infects them.

Come August, 1988, the next Changed will be picked randomly from those thousands of people, and now we'll have 2 people spreading the RDF virus. 1989, a big chunk of Chicago has probably had the RDF trigger at least once, not to mention some tourists and other visitors to the city.

In 89, we get 2 more Changed, and one of them could possibly be in a different random city, just because he'd been to Chicago in the past 2 years and unknowingly seen a Changed, and a new nest of RDF-field affected people starts up.

European and Asian and Oceanic outbreaks could happen in years to come as the number of tourists and business people from those reasons travel into North America and begin to be fielded and infected themselves.

The 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City probably 'infected' most of the people who were around and watching, meaning that by then (if not before) pretty much anyone has a chance to be Changed.

It also means that truly isolated areas of the world (South Pacific islands, isolated Amazonian tribes, etc) could potentially be unchanged after the 2020 deadline; but any encounter at all with a Changed would likely Change them immediately and spread like wildfire through the village)

And while the RDF may 'fail' at some point, it'll probably still be around in a less effective form, trying to maintain some stability and spreading the Change. --[[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]]
:I'll give that some thought. It's somewhat similar to something I already had in mind. Perhaps those who have the RDF fail completely will be much more likely to change the next year, or they might even change out-of-phase. In any case, once they figure out that it's like a communicable disease, and everyone is already 'infected', the remaining humans will go nuts. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 12:35, 27 January 2008 (EST)

The spread and the exact reason for the "double" number each year, is as if the virus had only one chance per year to run it´s replication part code. (And someone sugest the use of "infected flags" for the furry virus to later identify the already changed).

The fractal-but-random nature of the spread means the Virus need the furrys alive for it´s reproduction, but not proximity at all (probably because the "computronium cloud" it´s an 11-dimension construct); so when the change secuence start, it´s because a "superior computational request" (diferent from the virus itself) has the need to do something to all the humans in the world, but not something that change all of them in a masive, blind generic "*.*" way.

If the detection of a emergent post-human-like inteligence is the reason of the "simulation", then it´s logical for the "server" to execute some "checking subrutine" regulary (once per year) on the most inteligent elements; stoping the propagation of uber-mutated-code things that come from outside the simulation.
If the server detects something "wrong" in a human, then It will try to correct any mistakes wihout killing him/her. --[[User:Argamis|Argamis]] 00:54, 4 February 2011 (UTC)

I had my theory of how it works the spread:
Every time one furry see/hear another furry (under the efect of the RDF) the Virus of both exchange <IP-person> links of eachother and save this in the "already changed" Virus Flag.
When a non-infected human see/hear a furry, the Virus try to do some "minor modifications" on the human through the RDF, and then set a "infected" Virus flag on his/her data.

When the server "anual check" detect a human with an "infected" Virus flag, thinks that some very critical "code" is missing in that human, and found a message like: "there is a copy of the same code here: <IP-(furry)person>" (this message and the "missing part" of the code, were the "minor modifications" made by the RDF-Interactive-Section of the Furry Virus).
{The TG Virus do not had this "tricky message" in it´s code, and has to wait the ocurrence of an eventual "copy&paste" for his activation/reproduction (this explain the few hundred human affected for this in thousands of years...), then the relationship between the TG Virus and the Furry Virus is a parasite one (or maybe mutualism, we do not know for sure).}

The server now go to the IP-furry_person and check him/her (see more below), then copy the complete code of the Virus and paste-it in the middle of the code of the "infected" human (because has more elevated access privileges, the "server" can write directly on the most "critical" and "active" part of the code of the infected human, the Virus itself can´t do that); then his/her body it´s "corrected" with the furry data "carried" by the living furry that infected his/her previusly.
The Server set a "xxxx check: DONE" server flag in the new furry (xxxx is the year).
The Virus check the flags, change the "infected" to "already changed" on the newbie furry, and modify his <IP_person> to a higher number (this way every year the server check only the humans and the "infected" humans first).

When the server check a furry, (without the "xxxx check: DONE" of that year) see the "already changed" flag like a "minor" error code, then try to restore his/her original (human) form; but the Virus uses the list of <IP-furry> links, and copy&paste the same Virus code again and again from multiple sources... {this is only posible between furry<->furry , the read&write its not restricted between active "brother" Viruses. In fact some "real virus" an P2P users works like this ^_^)
The server left the furry "minor" code intact, but set "xxxx check: FAIL" flag on him/her and go for the next...
Every time one infected human goes furry, the "check" on the previus furry Virus "carrier" blocks any posibility of ANOTHER human infected (by the same "carrier") goes to furry that year.

This way, every year the contact between every group of furries<->humans AND furries<->furries it´s equal in importance (for the expansion of the Virus) as it was the previusly year, the IP-furry-links only can double the efective total number of furry if already exist some conection between all of they (pasive in great citys, active search&contact in more remote regions). --[[User:Argamis|Argamis]] 00:54, 4 February 2011 (UTC)

== Change and disabilities? ==

I keep forgetting to bring this up on IRC, but how do people (as in writers and other interested people in this setting) think disabilities would be affected by the change? Both Mental and Physical?

Would a paraplegic who lost his legs in an accident regrow them if he changed? Would he regain the use of them if they weren't lost but just disabled? (back injury)? What about false teeth, deafness, blindness, etc?

What if the cause was not from a physical accident, but was viral or bacterial in nature? Some disease struck them blind? Would they stay blind?

And what if the disabilities were genetic? Would those genetic flaws still show in the new form?

Finally, what about mental disabilities? Could the Change 'cure' Alzheimer's? Would it affect someone who is literally a brain dead vegetable on life support?

If it does have curative properties, I suspect we'll start seeing more and more miracle cures (assuming they can survive the flu) in the years to come. Which may imply that there'll be a push in the early to mid 2010's to just keep someone alive as long as possible in the home they Change and are cured/fixed.

Thoughts?

--[[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]] 11:00, 4 February 2008 (EST)

:I think there are good arguments to be made for some healing properties of the Change, but I wouldn't make it go all out. A person missing a limb should still be missing a limb after the change (I have in mind a scene with a one-armed pianist who goes monkey and starts playing with his feet).

:When it comes to things like Alzheimer's, that is a much more difficult choice. I don't see mental retardation being suddenly healed by the Change, as that is a birth defect (and such things happen in animals too). But progressive diseases may backtrack, even if the conditions begin to return over time. That could make an even more painful story, somebody suffering from Alzheimer's, who Changes and now recognizes all his family again. But after a year or so everything starts to slip away again...

:Anyway, the whole keeping folks alive and hoping for a Change could make a good dynamic too. I just think there's a lot fo possibilities to consider before we make a decision on this. --[[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]] 12:24, 4 February 2008 (EST)
::I'm inclined to do as Matthias suggests. It's more or less what I had in mind. However, one of the things that the Change does is it puts everyone in very good health. Even being a 300 pound female bear, CM is in very good shape. It will cure some ailments, and put chronic diseases into remission. Those developments will confuse the medical community enough without regrowing limbs or curing Down's Syndrome. But if you've read the latest Tall Tales, ROB is being forced to act more openly. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 15:40, 4 February 2008 (EST)

:What happens to medical devices like heart pacemakers or hip replacements that were implanted in people before they changed? --[[User:JeniSkunk|Jenifur Charne]] 20:45, 10 February 2008 (EST)

::That's basically an open-ended question. I'm going to leave the answer to that one unsaid because I think it'd be a good Plot Point in a story. A furry episode of ''House'' maybe? --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 22:45, 10 February 2008 (EST)

::Late into the discussion, but better late than never. : ) Anyway, what about things like fillings and caps on teeth? Going to a dentist would be interesting. Going another step, outside medical devices wouldn't fit anymore and would bring up some unique delimas. What about people with prosthetics? If someone turns into a bear, I'm sure their leg isn't going to fit anymore, yet Unknown will wonder why they make such a claim all of a sudden. Lots of places to go with these stories. [[User:Tinbender|Tinbender]] 21:24, 5 May 2008 (EDT)

Hey, not really sure on any of the points raised, have to give it some thought. One thing to consider though is can anthro's act as a bridge to humans for viruses that currently only affect animals?--[[User:Devin|Devin]] 23:35, 10 February 2008 (EST)

== A mortal analysis of Paradise ==

Lets me see if I get some of the details right.

There is a post-singularity Uber-computer, that when projected into 3-space, has the same consistency as humanity's combined thumbnail and happens to be running a simulation of the events leading up to its own creation. Secondly, it gets infected by a super-bug/virus that makes borg nano-probes look overly large and cumbersome. Said post-singularity, sentient, ROB-type entity/ virus changes some lines of code (if such things can be referred to as such) in reference to the people in the simulation, in and around the vicinity of Chicago (maybe the super-bug's designers had way-distant ancestors from there, or whose ancestors had a grudge against the place). The Uber-comp, in a flash of inspiration counters with the 'firewall-from-not-heck', or RDF as we understand it. The ROB is still successful with its dastardly and despicable plan to make the simulated history end differently.

That I get as far as it can be understood by a three-dimensional entity not particularly versed in post-singularity, multi-dimensional physics and computational theory.

The RDF, The Veil, The "Really-Annoying-Mess-Up-Everyones-Lives" Field, appears to start collapsing or 'twisting' in several personal accounts. In fact, it would seem that there are certain individuals who have appeared to figure out means of 'gazing-past' the gaps in said previously mentioned field even though they do not have one of their own. Yes it has been theorized that they will soon fall victim to the ROB, however, consider that all of this is in one sense mere coding (albeit it happens to be far more complex than that), and that said people are taking advantage of 'bugs' in the code. How many bugs are there? Is it possible for someone (probably a changed, or mad scientist) to 'tune' or 'tinker' with the field, probably no more than tweaks to appearance or color? I know the Primary Engineer Of This Work has stated that there are no 'powers', but then again, this is all just code, and hackers can sometimes be just mortal.

Just a thought or two. I should probably stop this monologue before a super spy shows up.
~midon~

:You're pretty close overall, though the simulation doesn't necessarily have to be of the ROB's own creation. Human Earth could be something It came up with all by Itself. Another book that's similar to what I've come up with here is ''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwinia_(novel) Darwinia]''. Someone suggested that the best thing for the ROB to do is to restore from backup. The thing is, these are still people. ROB doesn't have a moral problem with allowing them to die within the sim, but will act to protect both itself and its people from an outside threat. Hence the RDF and other measures.--[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 17:46, 4 February 2008 (EST)

== Thinking far future... ==

First, to make it VERY clear, I am NOT thinking of any stories or anything set in the 2020 period yet. I've just been thinking of how the world may be like by then, as the last half are about to change.

I suspect there would be a mix of celebration (the last humans are joining us!) and mourning (humans will no longer be as they were). Regionally, there will probably be searches for the "last human baby", the ones born days/hours before the last Aug 17 change; they'd probably be local celebrities, similar to "New Years Babies"

And in 2021, the nervousness would start. Is the change source gone? Is it mutating? Are we going to change further? Or into something else now? For the Changed Generation, that little shiver of fear every August 17th will probably persist until they are all gone.

All that assumes civilization hasn't fallen apart by then of course. :)

--[[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]] 10:42, 25 February 2008 (EST)

== Summer Olympics ==

This was nagging at the back of my mind a bit, but I finally nailed it down to actually check dates:

:"The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, will be celebrated from August 8, 2008 to August 24, 2008".

For the record, the 2004 Olympics also just straddled the Change day, having started on Aug 13th. No other Summer Olympics have straddled Change day, but the 1996 games ended just before it, and the Paralympic Games that year did straddle the Change day.

The 2012 games in London curiously have a break between the end of the Olympics on Aug 12, 2012, and the start of the Paralympics on Aug 29.

Just something to think about for writers out there. :)

--[[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]] 10:07, 27 February 2008 (EST)

:The Change takes place right in the middle of the Olympics. All it takes is for one or two athletes to change to gum up the works. These people are already in top physical shape, too. But what happens when a swimmer becomes a dolphin, an otter, or perhaps something that doesn't swim well? I don't think the RDF can handle becoming as large as a rhino. They'll still displace an awful lot of water when they splash in.

:I'll have to mention this in Open Secrets.

:--[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 14:53, 27 February 2008 (EST)

::At least the illness will be a bit of a cover. Depending on how many Changed athletes there are, (both active and new Changed), the illness could be used to skip out on some events out of necessity.

::Still the pressure to perform, even if their form is inappropriate for the sport (A Bull trying to do a polevault or the triathlon in general? A bear for gymnastics? A Mouse in weightlifting? ) will be intense

::There would probably be a lot of discussion when a star athlete suddenly isn't performing as well as they did before.

::Of course, a few years after that, the Beijing Olympics here will probably end up with a * like the LA and Moscow Olympics, as people find out about the Change and the number of ringers (otters in swimming events, felines and primates in gymnastics, gazelles and cheetahs in track events, bears and bulls in weight lifting, etc...) semi-intentionally sent by the various countries. We could very well see TTC-level problems happening in Olympic Village.

--[[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]] 15:07, 27 February 2008 (EST)

== What happens ''after'' 2020? ==

Point one: Computer programs are never ''intrinsically'' equipped with an off-switch. Rather, a shutdown condition must be explicitly coded into a program -- and any program which ''lacks'' an explicit shutdown condition, will continue to chug merrily along until something hardware-ish gets in the way.

Point two: The Change is the result of a 'furry virus", ''i.e.,'' a '''computer program'''.

2020 is when the entire planetary population will be furry... but who's to say the 'furry virus' won't ''continue'' to do its thing, Changing people year in and year out, with each year's quantity of Changes being double that of the year before? We know that being Changed is ''not'' an absolute protection against the 'furry virus' -- the setting rules themselves ''explicitly allow'' previously-Changed people to get hit with another dose of Change, after all -- so ''either'' (a) the 'furry virus' ''does'' have an explicitly-coded off-switch, or else (b) starting in 2020, an ever-increasing number of people are going to end up Changing ''two or more times in any given year.''

If the 'furry virus' ''has'' a built-in off-switch, that begs the question of what, exactly, its shutdown condition ''is.'' Does it stop spreading/infecting when there's no unchanged Human left, is it waiting for some specific event or combination of events before it quits, or what? Perhaps the guy who wrote the 'furry virus' did so with the specific intent of encouraging ROB to make [insert specific changes here] in ROB's virtual world, such that the results of those changes are the virus's 'off-switch'?

If, on the other hand, the 'furry virus' has ''no'' built-in brakes, things can get weird, fast. People have already floated the notion of Changes happening "out of season"; what if these 'unscheduled' Changes are merely a harbinger of things to come, in which people can be re-zapped at any time of year, an arbitrarily large number of times per year? It may be instructive, or at least amusing, to extrapolate the data given in "The Numbers", and divide each year's expected number of Changes by the expected population for that year: In 2020, there's 1.12 Changes per person (perhaps every human being Changes, regardless of their current state, and there's a 12% chance of one guy Changing ''twice?).'' Since we're basically talking about a doubling function, it only takes until 2024 for every ex-human to be an involuntary member of the Change Of The Month Club (because there's a touch over 17 Changes per person that year), and the Change Of The '''Day''' Club starts up in 2029 (during which year there's a bit less than 514 Changes per person per year). In 2034, the extrapolated number of Changes per person for that year is significantly over 15,000 (which works out to about 7/4 of a Change ''per hour,'' every hour, for every human being); by 2040, we hit 1.75 Changes per ''minute;'' 2046 is when every human being starts to hit 1 Change per ''second.''

To repeat what I said above: Things get weird, fast.

Obviously, the above figures are ridiculous, since they're derived from mindless extrapolation of an exponential curve. Perhaps the most sensible way to go is to presume that ROB manages to ''do'' something about the metatstasizing 'furry virus' no later than 2025 or so. In any case, one hopes said figures at least provide a bit of food for thought... [[User:Cubist|Cubist]] 05:03, 10 March 2008 (EDT)

== Change and the Media ==

It's probably a sign that I watch WAY too much TV, but it's a theme that's been in the back of my mind (man that back area's getting mighty crowded with ideas). As the Change progresses, even with the Veil in place, more and more effects of the Change will start showing up in other ways, and it will become more and more 'public' even if the Unchanged won't really know what is going on. I suspect TV shows especially will begin to show a lot of these.

This is just some of my rambling thoughts on what the TV Cable signals might be sending to the screens of the Changed near-Future.

Reality TV in all its forms will probably be the first to really start showing the effects of the Changed, since they tend to have the fastest turnaround time and the most contact with non-actors. Court shows (like I wrote in my short story case) will have more and more cases of Changed vs Norms and even weird Changed vs Changed cases. "He won't share the nail clippers!" "She gifted me the money for the vacation to Alaska in January")

Gameshows also will start having more Changed contestants, especially popular ones like Price is Right.

And then you have the Survivor types. Show's like "Top Model" and "Bachelor(ette)" and "Blind Date" (especially given the Change's habit of giving the Changed Eye-turning bodies) will probably have the most Changed on a show early on (whether intentionally or unintentionally).

Home Makeover shows may start seeing even weirder designs as designers/homeowners remake rooms to give room for antlers or bigger buttons for hoof fingers and such. (We thought Frank's designs on Trading Spaces were weird BEFORE he Changed... :P )

Amazing Race may have a Changed Team soon; a few Changed in the Big Brother House (probably intentionally put in there by a Changed Studio staffer), and the next Survivor or two would probably have some contestants.

Once the Field comes down, I fully expect CBS to roll out a "Furries vs Normals" Survivor while they can.

Now onto more tasteful TV. (arguably :P )

Cartoons? (what few new ones that are made) will likely start having more and more of a furry bend to them. Hallowe'en specials may turn 'human' toons into furry ones as experiments to transition shows.

Soaps? Expect Change stories fairly soon I dare say. I don't watch them myself, but from what I've heard of some storylines they've done in the past, the Change isn't all that strange. These writers will probably be chaffing at the restrictions of the Field the most.

Sitcoms will probably start getting Changed in-jokes fairly quickly as more Changed writers and actors come on staff. Some of the jokes may verge on Veil-breaking too, but viewers would discount as visual FX.

Procedurals/Drama's, business as normal but more Change-related stories. Maulings and gorings investigated on CSI's (along with strange fingerprints/bootprints, hair samples, etc...), Without a Trace investigating people who disappear after Change Day, maybe even a TG mystery. Numb3rs maybe touching on the Change rate (imagine Chris brought in as an advisor for an ep ? :) ). House or ER dealing with a Changed patient and/or Changed doctors/nurses.

And finally (for now) Sci Fi/Fantasy shows will probably find themselves in a very difficult position. On the one hand, they'd be ideal to start exploring the Change itself. On the other hand, as long as the Field is in effect, they can't really explore them since they'd have to turn normals into Furry's (or dress furry's in fursuits). Plus, a show's setting may not exactly be ideal for adjusting to the Change. "SG-1/Atlantis" may be able to adjust (turn it into an Ori curse or something), but Terminator would have a harder time. Heroes could probably pull it off, but BSG? Unlikely. (Imagine them finding 'Earth' but it's a Furry Earth... Hmmm...)

Anyways, that's just some of my rambling thoughts on the TV of the near future, for what its worth.

:There's a simple way to make furries show up in Television. Simply use the polarized lenses as featured in Open Secrets on the video camera units. The image of the furries would pass through the polarized lenses onto the film. The film would record the true image in the same way that people would see the true image. Boom, RDF circumvented. --[[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]] 12:26, 28 January 2009 (EST)

:: True those would work. But everyone involved for those scenes would have to Know or questions would be raised. Depending on the scene and production. (Thouhg some could be handwaved, as long as the producer/editors Know. "Bob's gonna play the part of a man-rat for this scene. We'll CG-replace him in Editing afterward"

::--[[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]] 12:33, 28 January 2009 (EST)

::: Well, at the very least, the cameraman is going to be in the know fast! Actually, I could see something like this being done once things go public. We could have a documentary on the early Changed (while you can still get human actors!), and you'd have some cameras with the filter on it and some without so you could show what the Changed sees and what the unsuspecting humans around him see. --[[User:98.236.12.68|98.236.12.68]] 05:14, 29 January 2009 (EST)

:::: That is happening to some extent, though not with the filters yet. Shiloh (and her new boyfriend newly Changed this year) are doing what they can to document the Change and how it affects lives as it happens (on the side from their main jobs), and I'm sure she's far from alone on this.

:::: Once more Documentary makers get ahold of this and it goes public, I'm sure there will be more too.

::::--[[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]] 10:33, 29 January 2009 (EST)

== Furries in Space? ==

OK Time for even more thoughts from me. :) Endeavor's launch last night triggered this thought.

I'm not going to elaborate, but is anyone watching the ISS crew for change symptoms? Or the shuttle crew if they're up? A Change up there could be Veil breaking just because of the amount of attention and lack of privacy those people have. (not to mention the extreme circumstances they'd be under).

The Change itself could very well spell the end of Manned space flight for the next few decades in the end.

Not sure if it would spell the end of manned space flight but yeah even just an examination of the air filter would find stuff that couldn't have gotten up there any other way.--[[User:Devin|Devin]] 19:16, 11 March 2008 (EDT)

:I'm sure it'd be the end of manned space flight for quite some time simply for economic reasons if nothing else. This is going to be rather disruptive and there'll probably be a bit of a budget pinch. [[User:Bryan|Bryan]] 19:21, 18 March 2008 (EDT)

==The Reality Distortion Field is Real ==

Sadly, not the one you have in mind: http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/18/2117208 :) [[User:Bryan|Bryan]] 19:21, 18 March 2008 (EDT)

== Bats? ==

Just a question about the species: I've noticed you put aside birds for now, but what about bats?--[[User:142.68.130.19|142.68.130.19]] 23:52, 1 April 2008 (EDT)

:Bats will put a huge strain on the Veil. If/when they do show up, it might be coming down by then anyway. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 00:36, 2 April 2008 (EDT)

== Farming in Paradise ==

Just shooting an idea in here for later. [http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080410153658.htm This is the technology] widely deployed it the Paradise setting. But put the clock back ten years (1997 discovery, widespread global deployment by 2008). Biochar/agrichar. With any luck, the Green Revolution will be replaced with the Black Gold Revolution quickly. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 03:27, 15 April 2008 (EDT)

== BioFuels ==

Jon, you're beginning to scare me a bit. :P

This was just on Slashdot this morning: [http://www.utexas.edu/news/2008/04/23/biofuel_microbe/ New Source for Biofuels Discovered by Researchers At The University of Texas at Austin]

Basically, some bacteria that can make cellulose which can be turned to fuel, and the cellulose can be harvested without harming the bacteria.
--[[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]] 06:10, 25 April 2008 (EDT)

:I read about this yesterday. They hope to increase production efficiency 17-fold because otherwise, you'd have to cover the ''entire'' Midwest with this. Unfortunately it won't happen fast enough to prevent the shortages I know are coming.

:I read about this stuff every day. I mean, ''every'' day. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 14:19, 25 April 2008 (EDT)

Another bit of news: [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4133668.ece "Scientists find bugs that eat waste and excrete petrol."] --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 11:12, 15 June 2008 (EDT)

== The Chicago Ghost Killer ==

After having seen countless videos of Persona 3 on youtube, and having played the .hack//GU games, and having read about this setting repeatedly, this idea was born out of my skull. It doesn't really fit with the setting per-say, (people dealing with expected changes in their lives and the changing of culture as truth becomes harder and harder to keep hidden), but it's still interesting.

Imagine if once the number of furries hits the thousand mark or close to it (1997), a strange series of murders begin in Chiago and wander outwards. To normal police and investigators these people have -nothing- in common, just random innocent people. But the furries know that every single person killed was a furry! Now this is where things start to get weird.

When seen by furries, the killer is a lanky laid back twenty something raven haired young man whose expression almost always remains passive wearing semi-formal dark clothes with a revolver in one hand and spare bullets in the opposite pocket.

When the police just about anyone else whose effected by the perception filter see him, they see 'Average Joe' or 'Face You Can't Help But Forget' and never ever notice the weapon he's holding unless he hits them with it or shoots them or something just as drastic. It is also is picked up by metal detectors the same as any metal gun. In other words, his existence, is like the existence of furriness to normal humans, his existence effects them, but they can't notice him directly.

This guy always knows a furry when he sees one regardless of media or medium, or reads one, this include file records of people TGed by the virus. When he spots one or finds out about one, he calmly location that person, in order of him learning about them, and shoot that person in the head without fanfare then simply move on to the next one.

Physically his strength and speed are all perfectly average human, meaning a bear or tiger furry could easy tear him apart.

Strange thing is that if profiled, no records of him will turn up, anywhere!

Also, he might even begin to appear DIFFERENTLY to people who are under the effect of the perception filter. He can't appear as a furry, and can NEVER EVER appear as a precise person (he can't appear as someone's mother or brother). But he can ultimately change how people look at him, they see a five year old girl with a teddy bear opposed to a man with a revolver even if he STILL can't fit in a toy car for the life of him and that 'bear' might go off if someone else 'hugs' it, (which he'd avoid someone doing at all posts). He could also appear as a fire fighter or police officer if he gets clever enough. Though furries will -always- see through this disguise. Along with any human whose able to see furries without effort.

The Chicago Ghost Killer never attacks non-changed humans, and will never take a shot if there's a reasonable chance of shooting a non-changed person.

He travels by mundane methods, he always travels by the most practical and speedy method and always has the correct change or ticket (this is not an illusion). His taxi, train, or airplane never crash.

If detained for questioning, he might just walk straight out of the police station unless some of the cops are furries. If stripped of his weapon and ammo next time he shows up he'll have a new set perfectly identical to the last one down to the imperfections in the casing.

Now this is where things get ambiguous. I don't know if he's killed he just appears in Chicago the day after the change again each year, or weather two different people with abilities similar to his appear in his stead these armed with a crossbow and another one shot distance weapon.

Since deleting the entire universe is not an option, The Chicago Ghost Killer might be an emergency fail safe to try and cut off the infected flesh from the system.

His name comes from where he started killing (strangely the same place as the changes began) and the fact that to normal humans he IS like a ghost, there yet not there but decidedly felt.

I know this doesn't really fit with the setting at all, but I just had to share it with the only people who'd appreciate it.

Thank you.

- Alex Warlorn. 2008 06 15

:And his name is Agent Johnathan Walker Smith, is it? Seems like a Matrix Agent to me... (unsigned comment)
::Actually I don't think he'd -have- a name, or even know the true nature of the world, he'd just know what he -had- to do and how to do it and how he can do it.-- Alex Warlorn

== Octuplets born in California ==

Things that make you go Hmmmm....

8 babies at once
Planning to breast feed them all.
Names not being released (yet).

Could we have a changed couple hiding out there from the glare of the media spotlight? :)

--[[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]] 15:25, 27 January 2009 (EST)

=='''Future RDF Failure'''==

I'm starting to work out ideas about how the RDF would fail. My current thinking is that it will work on a small scale first. Visually, there would be a "refraction", like seeing your own eyes through your glasses. Or your leg halfway in a pool. This is the "Refraction Effect". These are places where the RDF has been removed, like a section of glass, revealing the Real World underneath. It's gone. The visual effect makes it clear a border's been crossed. I'm not sure ''when'' this is going to happen. Probably sometime near the US Gov wants to go public. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 07:57, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

===Weirdness Censor?===

I've been thinking about an "RDF Lite" that could basically act as a Weirdness Censor instead of the full blown see-furries-as-humans version that exists right now. There'd still be social upheaval, but not the civilization-ending type that would most likely happen. I'm very likely going to do this in After Hours, but I want to do it right. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 23:37, 21 May 2009 (UTC)

==Shoe Field Failure?==

[http://www.boingboing.net/2011/03/16/hoof-shoes.html Hoof shoes for about $1,700 ]. What's next? Paw shoes? --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 21:06, 16 March 2011 (UTC)

==The "Posthuman" World ==

In order to differentiate this setting from WoC more, I'm going to keep a certain number of regular humans in the furry world that results when the virus runs its course. Same rules as other furry types as far as parent-child species. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 19:41, 4 June 2009 (UTC)

:No offense, but that feels like a cop-out to me. As someone else pointed out, a computer virus is NOT going to simply 'burn itself out' a computer virus continues like any program infinitely unless it's directly ordered to. Once it runs out of humans to transform, it'll start to transform furries into other species, and become even more chaotic as time progresses. I just feels cheap the virus suddenly just stops, and it doesn't make sense form a programming point of view either since it would open MANY MORE cans of worms anyway. -- Alex Warlorn June 15 2009

::Okay. How to address this? A lot of my ideas for this setting comes from Charles Stross's work, which can get pretty mind-bending at times. ''Accelerando, Glasshouse, Singularity Sky'', and ''Iron Sunrise'' all come to mind. One of my basic assumptions is that the Furry Virus is itself sentient/sapient, but it's not ''quite'' as smart as the transhuman intelligence running the Simulation Space that is our universe (down to the Planck Length).

::The RDF was a last-ditch effort to maintain the experiment as it was. We're all a bunch of microbes, as far as ROB is concerned. But It's not the type of Being to just chuck the whole experiment into the incinerator and start over. At this point ROB has scrapped the original experiment in favor of trying to prevent our little petri dish universe from going completely bad. So, 1) contain the Furry Virus, and 2) prevent it from doing any more damage beyond 2020 by creating a specific End State. The FV remains, but it becomes an uncommon chronic disease.

::Frankly, now that furries and the TGed have been Outed ROB may even stop the history editing. More obvious actions include: Refilling dead oilfields, creating social conditions so humans aren't really surprised at the Change. There are probably all kinds of countermeasures ROB has done that I haven't thought of in order to keep people from going ''crazy crazy'' and incinerating their own petri dish. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 03:57, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

:::I was thinking of a similar idea, but in a programming context as opposed to a biological one, and ''very'' limited. Think of every person as an element of an array, i.e. Human[]. An algorithm designed to change the values of every element, like the furry virus is doing, would most likely go from 0 to some constant POPULATION_HUMAN. In that case, ROB might be able to circumvent the effects for the virus for a select few by assigning people to special values: NULL, NaN, -1, MAX_INT, INFINITY, or other predefined numbers, even those that aren't considered "special" to humans. The purpose of this would be to preserve ''some'' unaltered "data" for purposes not important to us, and it can't be done for all humans because of the effort or memory required to "manually" fix so many values.

:::Conversely, perhaps ROB will let the virus run its course so It can then safely run a variation of the virus to turn everyone back into humans. That would be another interesting take: when the world's furry in 2020, how will everyone feel when they find out they'll all be human again by about 2055, depending on population, and perhaps if the same thing happens in cycles? ...

:::...Or if it turns out that life has been this way for a long, ''long'' time. Thinking back to what ROB has been able to do, this is easily within Its power. -- [[User:MisterBackground|MisterBackground]] 05:31, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

::::ROB figures it's best to let the virus run its course then neutralize it like I've described. Perhaps ROB's reworking the Experiment to account for the new changes.--[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 06:04, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

:::::Colons! Colons as far as the eye can see! Ahaha.

:::::One little problem I had with ''Accelerando'' (though I did indeed love it in all other respects) was how completely unfathomable the Higher Beings were. You never could figure out what their reasons were for anything…and in fact, in all their interactions with the remnants of pre-Singularity humanity, they mostly seemed to delight in "poking the anthill". Sending boatloads of recreations of historical and fictitious characters out to that space station just to mess with humanity's minds. And not only could you not ask them why, you wouldn't be able to understand their answer if you did. Hence, one of the things that you hope you learn in the end—the question of "why?"—is forever unanswered.

:::::It would be kind of nice to have some of the characters eventually be able to confront ROB and the virus and ask them what the deal was, but I'm not holding my breath any. —[[User:Robotech Master|Robotech Master]] 06:22, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

::::::I'm very, ''very'' careful not to jump the shark. But at the very least ROB does have some empathy for us microbes. While ROB does do some "resimulation" for TGed folk, it absolutely ''will not'' alter memories because that would cause personality death.

::::::Paradise is more similar too ''[http://www.amazon.com/Darwinia-Novel-Different-Twentieth-Century/dp/0812566629 Darwinia]'' than ''Accelerando''. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 18:58, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

:::Another possibility I just thought about: perhaps this isn't the act of a virus at all. Instead this is the fix to an ancient "Human Virus" that infected the universe, and it's just restoring the original experiment (or whatever). Or if you ''really'' want to throw people off: humanity ''is'' the virus itself, and this is how ROB is solving the problem. -- [[User:MisterBackground|MisterBackground]] 07:25, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

::Well, to be fair, this is a post-Singularity virus. Nobody ever said it was strictly one-function only. For all we know, it may have a behavioral change programmed into it. "Take Z action until condition A is met, then switch to taking Y action until condition B is met, etc." Or heck, the virus itself may be a sentient/sapient digital life form with free will, fully able to "change its mind" when it wants to. Certainly there is some intelligent agency at work behind the Reality Distortion Field that has already shown the ability to change its own behavior or react to changes in infected people's situations (changing TG furs' "ghosts"—and all extant records—from male to female when they get pregnant, for instance). No reason the virus can't be the same way. —[[User:Robotech Master|Robotech Master]] 23:32, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

:How is that going to work? I'm not sure how humanity can propagate by the "same rules" as other furry types given that it's been established humans and furres are not able to interbreed. Perhaps there might be an inverse of the Sleeping Sickness (a Waking Sickness? :) which causes furries to randomly mutate back into human in addition to the other types of furry form? —[[User:Robotech Master|Robotech Master]] 22:31, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

::Two thoughts: 1) In 2021 there's a group of humans worldwide who don't Change. They're simply the one species among many. After this point they can breed with furres because the RDF is down anyway. Perhaps they can already do this in Bubbled areas in 2010. 2) Human forms can be a recessional trait that shows up on occasion, between two furres.

::Furry babies already look ''very'' human due to a type of neoteny. Even the herbivores like horses and deer have very stubby muzzles. It looks more like a mask when they're born. Within two years those muzzle stubs grow the "baby animal" proportions, then as normal. They're generally more thinly furred for those first two years also. I keep thinking of puppies. No matter what the breed, they all look ''extremely'' similar when newborn. Same will be true in this setting. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 23:55, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Additionally, TG and TF will continue. I'm thinking of something akin to Matthias' character, with random changes. It'll be considered a chronic disease. And the severe forms ''can'' kill you. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 06:40, 5 June 2009 (UTC)

== Possibly the first occurance of ROB ==

As I mentioned when I introduced him, ROB (Random Omnipotent Being) comes from some other message boards I regularly view/visit. Well someone seems to have found what may have been the first occurrence of ROB. [http://forums.spacebattles.com/showthread.php?t=53955] Pretty humble beginnings for him if you ask me. :) (His brother, COROB (Crossover Obsessed Random Omnipotent Being) similarly had humble beginnings a month or so later. [http://forums.spacebattles.com/showthread.php?t=55397] )

== The RDF and extra extremities. ==

Assume here that the RDF is functioning normally and hasn't broken down. Normal humans can't feel the extra extremities of the Changed, like tails and horns - they just feel empty air. But what would another Changed see if they were to look at a normal human attempting to touch a Changed's tail? Would they see the human seemingly passing their hand through the tail of the Changed? [[User:CNash|CNash]] 23:52, 15 July 2009 (UTC)

:I think you've got it wrong. Extra extremities can still be physically felt. The RDF is like a holographic cloak around the changed - it doesn't actually have an effect on their form. -- [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] 00:57, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

:Shadow is basically correct. Their hand wouldn't pass through empty air. They would meet some weird resistance, but they'd forget about it in a short time. Other Changed would see them touch the tail they can't see. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 01:03, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

:: I was going by a line in "Made Alone"; CM's diary entry: ''I say, `Oh yeah, here, grab my tail'. He humors me, but he cannot feel it. I feel him put his hand on it, but he just doesn't feel it.'' - I haven't yet read through all the stories and I'm going chronologically. [[User:CNash|CNash]] 11:26, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

:::If there's one thing I've learned about running a shared setting is to ''not'' demand ironclad continuity. I always allow authors leeway for dramatic purposes, and I don't mind if events don't quite match up. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 00:19, 17 July 2009 (UTC)

::::Given that is the earliest described Change event, I just assumed that the Veil was stronger back then, and since lessened to the extent of allowing feeling of extremities. —[[User:Robotech Master|Robotech Master]] 07:32, 17 July 2009 (UTC)

== Glitch ==

Assertion one: Universe of Paradise setting is mathmatically generated by advanced post-singularity computer. Assertion two: Pre-singularity computers have demonstrated randomized renumbering of internal programing due to outside factors. These renumberings are identified as "glitches," having no basis in programming like bugs and viruses. Assumption: Post singularity computer operates with similar if heavily advanced hardware as pre-singularity computer. Conclusion: Randomized renumberings of programming will occur independently of programming. That is to say, it is not inconceivable that somewhere, a coffee cup on the table is suddenly on the counter. Or that an ant becomes a different species of ant. Or that a gray-eyed man one day has blue eyes. Perhaps these small changes are common and constant. -- [[User:Masterweaver|Masterweaver]] 05:28, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

== Species Expansion ==

We have already seen at least one Elephant man. Is the Furry Virus, as it expands, drawing from a larger gene base? And if so, when would the first nonmammalians arise? Personally, I'm expecting crocs in the near future. Perhaps even 2010... -- [[User:Masterweaver|Masterweaver]] 22:41, 11 November 2009 (UTC)

:The setting is mammals only. Reptiles and birds have very different reproductive biologies. Birds wouldn't be able to fly and cold-blooded creatures can't support a human-like brain and its energy requirements. -- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 01:04, 12 November 2009 (UTC)

== An observation ==

From what I've read, the 'computer simulation' theory is just that- a theory. There's no point blank evidence that this is what's happening within the storyline, and, while I obviously shouldn't just stroll in and rewrite things, but I'd ask the main participators in this storyline to keep this in mind. -- [[User:MCMackers|MCMackers]] -- (note added by [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] 22:43, 12 November 2009 (UTC))

:Jon is the creator of the setting and he has final say in these things... He has not ruled on this yet, but I think he will if it becomes a problem. -- [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] 22:43, 12 November 2009 (UTC)

== If a person doesn't TF again next year... ==

Maybe I missed something. Is it right that if a person doesn't TF again the year after they first change, they stop changing for good? Thinking of the story's setting (computer simulation), if the change is caused by a virus, surely it could keep affcting people? If that doesn't make sense I'll expand, but surely someone knows what I'm talking about. -- [[User:MCMackers|MCMackers]] -- signature added by [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] )

:First it's "bear", not "bare" - homophones are a big stumbling point for a large portion of people, so I try to help people where I can with them :)

: Second... Remember that the whole "post-singularity simulation infected by a virus" schtick is just one possible cause. Jon has said that it could be, but has not pinned it on that. If it really is a virus, then there is a possibility that you could change again 20 years down the line. However... It might be that the multi-change people are somehow an exception - like the virus leaves behind a flag saying "infected" (you'll find this with existing computer viruses, actually) and with multi-changers this flag is missing. Or it could be that the multi-changers are actually being created because of ROB trying to undo the damage done by the virus. And a third possibility is that there is no "virus" and the change is happening according to a plan setup by the people that programmed the simulation - and the multi-changers were randomly selected to be multi-changers.

:In other words... Even if you assume that the postulated "post-singularity simulation" is reality the change could be more than a virus and the limits on multiple changes could be somehow tied directly to the purposes that the simulation was created for... Anyway... I've gone on too long with this. -- [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] 19:03, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

::Ugh. I actually thought whilst typing, "that's not right, it should be bare..." blast. So much for trying to write a story if I can't do that kind of simple thing.

::Thanks for your help. I'm trying to make sure I understand the setting as best I can so I can make my story (hopefully a series, but maybe I'm being a bit ambitious) as best as possible. I'm trying to break the mould... Most characters in the Paradise setting seem to be similar. If my first attempt works, I might try one with a different character... Actually, I'd probably do it even if it didn't work :) -- [[User:MCMackers|MCMackers]]

:::Just to be clear, it is a simulation running on a post-Singularity cloud of computronium. And it is a virus doing the dirty work. :) -- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 02:34, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

:::: *GACK* - Last time I read the setting page that was still a "speculation" bit :( -- [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] 08:10, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

== Human/Furry detail ==

More prattling, sorry. Bear with me (Heh. Got it right this time.).

The information on smaller details in the differences between humans and furs is irritatingly lax, and I hit a block while writing my own story stressing over an incredibly minor detail. My problem aside, I think that the lack of detail makes it awkward to write... Would two characters that changed into the same species be exactly the same anatomically? I'm not sure. A couple of stories have thrown me in that respect, mainly "A Kind of Paradise", and "Twisting the Veil". I feel like I'm having a bit of a whine actually, and should just get on with it, but right now, I feel like speaking my mind. -- [[User:MCMackers|MCMackers]]

:The anatomical differences between furry species can vary, but not so much that they become incompatible with each other. This is why I didn't want to add birds/reptiles/fish/insects. They're just too different. If they're the same species, they're exactly the same. There is a variance in hair (Some have it, some don't) otherwise everyone is firmly anthro rather than, say, animal ears and tail and nothing else. -- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 02:37, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

::I understand why there are only mammals in the setting, personally I think it's a good choice. I wasn't really thinking about the degrees of how human/animalistic people are, but rather what traits they take on when they change. For example, I know that people have commented on changes in sounds and smells, but not sight, is sight affected? -- [[User:MCMackers|MCMackers]]

:::About the sight, in one [[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]]´s story, a morph rat can see the shape and size of objects & dodge them while running, (only with the light of the stars in a moonless night); other humans in the same place need to use flashlights. The same caracter can see colors, read or driving a car like any other human in normal light conditions.
:::Other changed caracter had problems related to perception of deep & 3D; the benefit of a more wide angle of vision it´s not something really useful in the for-human-designed world. --[[User:Argamis|Argamis]] 13:29, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

::And, as for traits, I know that most species of rodents are incapable of vomiting, fox example. But would the humans be affected by this? Of course, I'm not asking for all the details, that would be ridiculous considering the number of possibilities. I just don't want to write something that doesn't follow the rules of the setting. -- [[User:MCMackers|MCMackers]]

:::Actually... Things like that are, IMHO, why the 'Sleeping Sickness' bracelets have been issued. -- [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] 08:10, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

::::Um, yes, those. Maybe I haven't been reading the right stories, but to the best of my knowledge, the bracelets are to let doctors know (provided they already know about the whole thing) what you changed into. Have I missed something? (I feel like I'm asking too many questions. Sorry.) -- [[User:MCMackers|MCMackers]]

:::::There is a mention in one of a changed that was a species to which aspirin is toxic being killed by a doctor prescribing aspirin... I just don't remember which story that was. The stories about Doctor Clay have most of the good information about how changed can suffer from problems/illnesses incumbent to their species. (IIRC there is a judge that starts suffering from a problem only seen in horses - and he's a horse...) -- [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] 08:43, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

::::::The idea behind the "Sleeping Sickness" bracelets was pretty much a (bad) attempt by a small group at the CDC to get help to Changed. Hospitals were supposed to report such cases that presented in order for doctors in the know to be summoned. It was created essentally with the idea that it wasn't really a workable solution, but the best that could be come up with. The factoid that came up about toxic medications was based on a factoid I heard many years ago, that penicillian has a singular toxicity for rodents. As such, as drug testing is set up today, its unlikely it would ever be approved. The idea is that there is enough transformation that people might pick up certiain toxic reactions to things that they didn't realize. I'm not sure anyone has really gone into depth with this, but I'd think you could infer that some canines would have violent reactions to chocolate, for example. Like all things, there would be some variability, just like some dogs can seem to eat chocolate fine while others it might kill. -- [[User:Eirik|Eirik]] 23:52, 23 November 2009 (UTC)

== Extreame ROB ==

I had an odd thought last night about the implications of what ROB does with respect to rewriting documentation of peoples pasts. ROB has been known to change paperwork, pictures and even apparent histories of people. (Didn't someone in After Hours discover they were supposed to have dated people earlier as the opposite gender?) That got me to thinking about how far this might all go. Assuming that ROB doesn't actually start to mess with memories, will it start to alter older records? Pictures from earlier than the first Change, even for subjects that died before it all started? Paintings? And would they be consistent? Would every painting done of George Washington find the same form? And to take it a few steps further, what about statues? This could get messy... which isn't always a bad thing from a story perspective. -- [[User:Eirik|Eirik]] 15:20, 2 December 2009 (UTC)

:I can see that happening more as a result of the furry virus, since that kind of extreme "history editing" feels more malevolent to me than something ROB would do. -- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 20:42, 2 December 2009 (UTC)

::Interesting though that would be, it's an important plot mechanic for there to still be remnants of the human world - Once the entire human race has transformed, they need to still be aware that this has happened - Rewriting history would remove this and it would be as if nothing happened... if you see what I mean? -- [[User:MCMackers|MCMackers]]

::It would make sense for things to get messy if it were the virus causing it. Sloppy, half rewritten pasts, people not sure of what really happened and what didn't, more like a temporal infection than a careful rewriting. That kind of scare could lead the reader to be a bit more sympathetic about ROB trying to stop the virus's progression. It would also make a great opportunity to go all Serial Experiments Lain on a story and leave people wondering wtf -- [[User:Pandora|Tasci]] 09:10, 2 May 2010 (UTC)

== Furry Sizes ==

What size are furries? It's pretty clear that bears are big and mice are small, and it mostly makes sense to have the same thing (but not as extreme) for anthroid furries, but there are some other size differences I can't so easily imagine. Some guidelines might be helpful. Ferrets in particular, ferret males are often twice as big as ferret females, as is the case of many mustelids, but at the same time both of them are smaller than cats. If I make a female ferret larger than a rat, and a male ferret smaller than a cat, that's starting to leave not so much room to spare. If I had to finagle a scale I'd say

* mice - 1.2 meters (or less!)
* rats - 1.3 meters
* female ferrets, squirrels, minks, etc - 1.4 meters
* male ferrets, ringtails, mongooses - 1.6 meters
* female cats - 1.7 meters
* male cats, skunks, raccoons - 1.8 meters uh...
* big cats and wolves - 1.9-2.0
* big stuff like bears - all the way to 2.2.

But then again it might also be fun to have a 2 metres tall cavy. GEORGE LOVES YOU COME GIVE GEORGE A BIG HUG.

Maybe illustrating size differences between sexes is a bit too piccaunish. >.<
-- [[User:Pandora|Tasci]] 09:04, 2 May 2010 (UTC)

:I should personally think that irrelevant. While there's clearly going to be some destinction between heights and races, I think guidelines are unnesecary. People come in all shapes and sizes, this individuallity should be maintained. -- [[User:MCMackers|MCMackers]]

One little detail though, (and it doesn't really apply to me but may for others), removing hippo's, rhino's and elephants from the pool seems to be a bit speciest, considering moose are allowed. In looking at the Wiki, it seems that hippos (1.5meters) and rhinos (2.0 meters) are actually generally smaller or the same size as the largest moose (2.1 metres) species. Elephants seem to average about a meter or two larger than the moose.

Perhaps a better restriction would be to allow any land mammal (and any sea mammal that is between the sizes of the minimum land mammal size and the maximum land mammal size), but set minimum and maximum furre sizes; something like a min of 1.2 metres or 4ft to a max of 2.0 metres or 7ft.

Anyways, I'll try and keep an eye on things and see if I can culture this idea I've got further. - 19:50, 10 January 2008 [[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]]

== Human Survival ==

Since the US government, and governments of the world, would have obviously known about the furry changes for many years as government officials became Changed, they logically would have set up Projects (like the Manhattan Project) to study the reasons and try and find a solution. It is obvious to them that the end of humanity will come and this should have all contries of the world enganged in studying the scientific causes of the RDF and ways to affect it. Many of the scientists themselves who get changed would surely want to study the effect. Any physics professor changed would jump at the chance to study it and get the next Nobel prize for figuring it out. It does defy natural laws, therefore the new laws it does follow can be studied. If there is some master computer responsible for the universe, such as in Jack Chalker's "Well of Souls" books, then this it might be possible for a "super computer" build by the UN or whoever to communicate with the ROB virus program or even the Master computer itself, and change it, such as the computer "Obie" in the Well World books. Personally, I favor a different approach. In 1987 a super computer someplace near Chicago DID develop self awareness, predicted that mankind was going to overpopulate and destroy the planet, and it decided to "FIX" things by connecting with the main universal computer at the center of the universe on a night when the least number of galaxies are in the way, which happens to be Aug 17. The governments at some point would find out that the birth rate is on a serious decline even though it is possible for furries to have babies, it is not as common as humans due to all the different genetics and species involved. Mating a horse furry with a rabbit furry is much less likly to produce offspring, for example, that mating a horse furry with another horse furry, so regardless of who was married to who when they are human, statistically the couple won't be able to have children after both change, unless they are the same. Some story about finding the ROB computer near Chicago before 2020 should be a possibility and reasoning with it might be a good solution.
-- [[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]] 02:37, 6 July 2010 (UTC)

:The thing is, there is no ROB computer in our world, if I'm understanding what you're saying here. It isn't like Obie or the Well World where it's something inside the Universe itself that's causing the Change. This setting--basically our world--exists as a Planck-level simulation space inside a post-Singularity posthuman computer. There are two viruses (also posthuman, slightly more advanced) responsible for the Change: A relatively controllable TG virus, and the much newer "furry virus" that ROB can't contain with "history editing".
Keep in mind that governments didn't really know this was even happening until the early 2000s.
Otherwise, the RDF/Change as a source of study for physicists is a good angle.
-- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 18:57, 6 July 2010 (UTC)

::I just hate to plug but if you want an example of how goverments might screw up the change read my story [[User:Fibio|Cascade Failure]]
-- [[User:Fibio|Fibio]] 20:42, 6 July 2010 (UTC)

::Of course, in a way it's kind of pointless even to know about it, since I can't really foresee any way that it could ever become a plot point within the story itself. I can't really see humanity figuring out how to "hack" its way out.
It doesn't really make that much of a difference, from an in-universe standpoint, to assume that it's all being done by "magic". (Any sufficiently advanced technology…) —- [[User:Robotech Master|Robotech Master]] 21:23, 6 July 2010 (UTC)

:::Pretty much [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RealityWarper] all around. :) -- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 22:27, 6 July 2010 (UTC)

Wow, thanks folks for all the replies to my post! People to talk to! OK, first JonBuck, I am not really sure I understand all the Plank-level simulation space inside a post-singularity posthuman supercomputer stuff (I did try to look up the story Accelerando but I just found a book cover) but I interpret this to mean: Plank-Level = really really small; simulation space = not real or temporary space in computer memory; post-singularity = after a black hole evaporates in about a few trillion years; post human = mankind extinct; supercomputer = something like the Cosmic AC in [http://www.multivax.com/last_question.html] ?

However, my ignorance aside, regardless of what the supercomputer is, or what we are, it would in effect be God. Now ROB could represent the devil, or if God has gone crazy, the savior. ROB either was created by the supercomputer "GOD" on purpose or by accident, it was created by a simulation universe, either our own, a past one, or another running concurrently, to infect God, or it was created by God's creators as some part of the God computer for some purpose and function, and if that is the case then either it is carrying out its intended program or it has malfunctioned. I think that is a complete list of all possible options, so if I have missed one then please let me know.

You stated, "It comes from outside the post-Singularity brain, and is slightly more advanced than "ours". What's happening is this bit of malicious code (sentient, no less, but on a level far beyond our ability to comprehend it) is messing up the simulated world we reside in. Why? I dunno. One of those inscrutable things." This sentient "virus" needs to have come from one of the posibilities above, and I suppose it is up to you to decide which, but since "you dunno", then I will try to help.

I guess the first question is "Why did God create the universe?" which translated means "Why is the supercomputer running the simulation?" Is the goal good or evil? Perhaps the supercomputer was programed to do so for an evil purpose by its creators, and ROB is sort of like its concience it has developed and wants to mess up the experiment before it can produce evil results. I would favor ROB being good, instead of evil, perhaps trying to produce a different result that will end up doing good than if the simulation ran to completion on its present course. However, that being said, if ROB is a computer virus, and based on logic and programable, and is expending energy to maintain the RDF, scientists studying that might find a way to..either communicate with it, grab its attention, or annoy it. I believe that enabeling some communication with it, even though we won't understand it completly, would produce some interesting stories.

Fibeo, I had previously read your story and just re-read it. By the way it is fine to plug :) When I read it the first time I thought that it really did not fit in with the rest of the stories since it involved time travel. In the context of a simulation, that would mean more than one running at one time, all on different timelines, and being able to hop between them. Maybe ROB is trans-simulation and could have helped this, but I really don't see how anyone in a simulation could get the supercomputer running it to re-set it to a prior time point and insert someone from a future point. It was an interesting story however and I did enjoy reading it.

Robotech, "magic" is a nice simple explanation to explain the unexplainable, but mankind strives for answers, it seeks to understand, and predict and ultimately control those things it can not immediately explain. Faced with an unexplainable force that is threatening mankind itself with extintion, mankind will use all resourses at its disposal, spare no espence, bring the greatest scientific minds, changed and unchanged to work on studying and solving the problem. It may be futile, we may never be able to win against the Gods, but it is the nature of mankind to TRY! You mentioned it is unlikly manking could "hack" its way out. That would be one possibility, since mathematics would likly be the same for both us and the supercomputer and ROB which are both based on mathmatics and logic. however, there are possibities for stories regarding that attempt..and could be very interesting. If I was a writer, I might even try writing one, but who knows...I might anyways.

Back to JonBuck. The link was to an article about people thinking something and it becoming real. Much too powerful, sort of like...writers!
-- [[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]] 00:39, 7 July 2010 (UTC)

:Okay. I'm going to clarify some concepts here.
:The Singularity I'm referring to is the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity Technological_singularity] . Nothing to do with gravity. A [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posthuman further entry on posthumanism] , and its close relation, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhumanist Transhumanist]. By Planck-level I mean, basically, the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planck_units smallest length in the universe] . Everything down to those levels is "simulated".
:Moving on, the kind of questions you bring up I actually don't want to deal with. The reason I'm using the ROB acronym in the first place is to avoid overtly religious connotations. I realize that they're very important, but it's otherwise such a contentious issue in the real world. I really don't want to see any "communicating with ROB" stories.
:Post-Singularity intelligences are by nature inscrutable (I've seen Stross refer to them as "Weakly Godlike Entities" in his books). At this point ROB has switched to a "salvage mode" by making direct changes to the "simulation" in the form of alleviating energy crises (a huge concern of mine at the time I wrote most of my stories in this setting) and climate change.
:''Accelerando'' is actually [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerando_%28book%29 available for free].
: -- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 02:27, 7 July 2010 (UTC)

::Thanks for the reply Jonbuck, the links were very helpful and I have a clearer idea what you are talking about now. It is going to take me a while to read all the stories.
::I used religious words to describe ideas simply that are familiar but did not mean in any way to be controversial.
::I will try over the next few weeks to put together a short story within your constraints, and if it exceeds your limits we can just change it. I plan to make one assumption, and that is that a simulation is defined by rules set for it that need to be obeyed for it to continue running. ROB changing the speed of light in the simulation for example would be such a fundamental change in everything that it would break the entire simulation, i.e. crash the program. ROB can only work within the rules set for the simulation, agreed?
:: -- [[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]] 02:12, 8 July 2010 (UTC)

:::Major changes in underlying physical constants would probably be ill advised, even for ROB. :) At this point the simulation is being salvaged to prevent social chaos, death, and extinction of the people inside it.
:::There's a novel out that has some very similar ideas and influenced a lot of how I set up this setting: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwinia_%28novel%29 ''Darwinia'' by Robert Wilson] .
::: -- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 02:22, 8 July 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the reply JonBuck, I can work with that, and will post something in a few weeks for your feedback.
-- [[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]] 00:45, 9 July 2010 (UTC)

== About ('''2004''') '''''Victory Starts Here''''' ==

OK, JonBuck, I lied and posted the story in just 2 days. I could not stop thinking about it. I got as far as I could. Could you please read it and then tell me the results of each of the experiments before I can continue in the next one? Thanks!
[[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]] 00:17, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

:After the "server crash" of 2011; the original story [[User:Enphilistor|Victory Starts Here]] (by [[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]] ) is now avalaible (in a very crude, text only format) in the Talk Page of it´s creator: [[User_talk:Enphilistor| Victory Starts Here]]
: -- [[User:Argamis|Argamis]] 13:00, 31 January 2011 (UTC)

Well, I think I will just have to decide for myself how the experiments turn out and just hope you approve. One of my goals in the stories I plan to write is to explain "scientifically" all the effects you have going on here are consistent with all universal laws. If you are running a program, you can't change the code of the program while it is running. You can change the code but only by stoping the program from running and recompiling it. So anything ROB is doing has to be done inside the simulation following the rules of the simulation (under the premise of the stories I plan to write). It is really not going to be easy for the scientists(i.e. me) to explain the changes to the past records, or why they start off only being change a few years back, then all the way back to the day someone was born, and undoing history such as marriages. And remember, I can't have ROB using "magic", ROB is in the simulation and has to be constrained to its rules. Because of this constraint, ROB needs a "body" someplace and a supply of "energy" from somewhere, to direct and power all these changes. I hope you enjoy my next story, that should be entiteld something like "Victory Continues", where Paul has to cope with being a female pig, and the scientists recieve some confusing results on the origin of the signals they record.
-- [[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]] 22:27, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

:Not really. If ROB is outside of the simulation, there's nothing to stop it from pausing the simulation and reworking the fabric of it as necessary. It's like pausing the Sims and placing new walls or whatever. As far as the Sim-people are concerned, those walls might as well as have always been there, even if we (the players) know better. ROB is not inside the simulation, ROB is the player(s) outside the simulation. In no sense does ROB need to obey any rules within the simulation, nor does it need act within the laws of the simulation to change the simulation. By definition anything ROB does is going to be 'magic' because turning people into furries, or editing history, isn't something that's allowed within physical laws. Most of the transformations directly violate the law of the conservation of mass and energy, for example.
:I don't mean to rain on your parade, and I'm clearly not Mr Buck (who might disagree with my explanation), but it seems like you're not quite getting the setting, as I understand it. Hope that helps.
: -- [[User:Honeymane|Honeymane]] 07:52, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

::Got it in one, Honeymane. -- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 18:30, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

JonBuck said, Major changes in underlying physical constants would probably be ill advised, even for ROB. :)

In addition, since ROB hates paradoxes, and will go to such extremes as making sure each child will have both a biological father and a mother and never 2 fathers or 2 mothers, following the rule of conservation in energy and mass is necessary to avoid such paradoxes on an even more fundamental level and in any case easily achieved. If you read my story, that exact experiment has been set up to measure this. Since it is so easy to maintain mass and energy balance, which you will see in the next story, there is no reason to violate this universal law. Imagine the effect on the simulation if you try to break this rule either while it is running or "pausing" it. A calculation is in the process of being made on an object between it and every other object in the universe. In the middle of the calculation a zero is entered (E = mC^2, so if you are going to, C is either zero, which crashes the program and is not what JonBuck said, or as m goes to zero, then c goes to infinity which also changes the velocity of light constant which JobBuck said would not happen). Some calculations have already been performed and other calculations in progress have end up with a divisor of zero. You crash the program when you restart it, as the zero divisor propagates in all the calculations throughout the universe.

In any case, mankind will try and study these effects, and my stories will be mostly concerned with these attempts. However, when I say all laws have to be obeyed, that does not mean all laws that humans know about, it can include new ones. It may be that the results of the experiments will lead them to conclude that something is breaking the laws of the universe because they don't understand them all, but ROB will know what it is doing. I imagine it like this. The main computer can't use its antiviral programming to stop ROB as long as ROB is hiding in the simulation and following the rules in the simulation, but if ROB breaks the rules, and crashes it, he becomes exposed with no place to hide and gets zaped. You will see that in the next story, that ROB is still just as powerful to the same "magic" as it can is now, and still be consistent with all stories that have happened, and the setting JonBuck has set up. JonBuck has not really explained the interaction between the main computer and the virus or any protections or why they are not working. In any case, it doesn't matter what i think, since the stories I plan don't mention this at all, they will be consistent with either ROB being inside or outside the simulation, only what the beings in the simulation measure is in the stories. Just trust me, the story will be interesting and fun, and if JonBuck says no to some result after he reads it, I will change it. Fair?
-- [[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]] 01:54, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

:I haven't had time to read your story yet. Frankly, reading your comments here I'm getting a little antsy over what exactly the impact it would have on the overall setting. I think you're over-analyzing the setting, frankly. You're asking questions about it that I really can't answer.
:Also, use colons in front of your paragraphs to make them indent and create a "nested" topic. And put a blank line between paragraphs. Thanks.
: -- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 02:21, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

::For JonBuck I had intentionally not been using indents so that my comments would be totally left justified and everyone the replies for everyone else indented, make it easier in my view to keep things organized. But if you prefer indents, I am easy.
::I had assumed that you had already read the story. It would be good for me to get some feedback on that since none of the things we discuss here are really in it, but may impact it.
:: -- [[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]] 02:57, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

:I think you're confusing the 'players' here. First, there's the computer that all the "real" characters (ie the characters in the story) exist in. ROB 1 is likely someone running the computer, perhaps for anthropological reason, perhaps because they're bored. ROB 2 is unrelated to ROB 1, but for one reason or another, has managed to add a virus program to ROB 1's simulation, causing problems. There are at least 2 viruses that JonBuck has discussed; one that changes gender, and one that changes people into furries, we could, however, imagine that there may have been other viruses in the past, that eventually ROB 1 removed. For example, Atlantis might have been real, and so might have the Greek/etc gods. Atlantians were gifted technology beyond what they should have, and ROB 1 deleted the island to save the program, ROB might have also deleted the Gods, for whatever reason, etc. I'm just speculating here. Now, either ROB can't remove the virus like it did the other problems, or it realized that altering reality was screwing with the program's purpose (such as anthropological study) So rather than delete the TG or TF viruses, ROB 1 created a program to try and mitigate the virus's effects. This program is what causes the history editing (etc).
:Both these viruses exist within the programing of the Computer, but not on a level that would appear to anyone in the program. It's important to remember that time doesn't necessarily pass like it does within the computer; the virus could get it's work done in a nanosecond. Everything else, the sickness, the slow change, all these might be part of the mitigation program's efforts to prevent anyone from changing in public, and to change so suddenly they lose their minds, nor without warning. But there's no reason to think that this computer virus is operating through something like an actual virus, or that the changes are visible on a cell level before the change occurs, even in those showing the signs of the change.
:But again, this is just me talking, not Buck. But I do strongly suggest you hold off writing too much more until Jon has a chance to review your story, or else you might very well find yourself writing something based on ideas that JonBuck doesn't like/want in his setting.
: -- [[User:Honeymane|Honeymane]] 04:24, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

:: For Honeymane It is really difficult to hit a moving target. I have not seen in any of the stories and discussions or JonBuck's guidlines about prior activity of ROB. As for ROB1, ROB2, ....ROBN, only one master computer has been mentioned and only one ROB virus. In my understanding, the main comupter has created a SIMULATION. The main computer is infected with a much smaller and more limited "few lines of code" virus, that the beings on one planet in the SIMULATION call the random omnipotent being, but this being is only omnipotent comparted to us, not compared to the main computer. I do not see ROB having the same power to shut down the simulation, pause it, change the rules in it or perform any of the jobs the main computer does.
:: -- [[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]] 04:24, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

:I see ROB as much more limited. It needs to avoid detection of the antiviral programs, it can't attract their attention, it needs to work by stealth, it is a virus after all, it can't do things that say, "here I am!". And this all follows from things JonBuck has indicated. If he wants to say ROB = main computer in all powers, then well, fine, but he has not done so. He has not defined the motives of ROB or the main computer. when asked, he has said, " I dunno". Given that void, since I need to write in that setting, I find myself creating possible motives for them in my mind.
:It makes no difference to the stories I plan to write, but it helps me limiting ROB to viral powers and behaviors, not mainfraim abilities. A virus has 2 main goals, to keep itself alive and to reproduce itself. ROB may or may not have the second goal, but it will have the first. While doing this in any enviornment, it may cause side effects. Imagine ROB as a biological virus, and a living cell as the simulation that is growing inside a body that is the mainframe. At one time ROB was outside the cell, in the body (mainframe) where lots of antibodies (antiviral programs) were hunting for it. By entering the cell, it is now hidden from the body's defenses. However, if the cell gets sick or dies(ROB crashes the cell simulation) before ROB has either left the cell or reached a state of reproduction where that is desireable, then the body will just devower the cell and grow a new one. So in my scenario, perhaps ROB realized that the purpose of the simulation was about to be achieved, and since ROB is not ready to reproduce, it is messing with the simulation, hyjacking it as a virus hyjacks the DNA of a Cell, to keep the simulation alive longer than it would otherwise, so that it won't reach the conditions for termination, until it can make other copies of itself to infect other simulations. Who knows, maybe with enough copies of itself it can take over the mainfraim. Alternatively, its work at transforming mankind may be the way it is going about reproducing. Alternatively, ROB might have realized the simulation was about to produce a failed reslut which would have terminated the simulation and it is acting to keep itself alive by preventing failure conditions.
:In any case it makes no difference to the stories I plan to write, JonBuck had declined to actually be clear on this, and it really does not matter. The beings in the simulations don't know this, and it is difficult to think of any way they could ever find out. Well actually I could, because I am like that. One way would be if ROB tells them, and since Jonbuck said no comunication with ROB, that won't happen. Another if the mainfram sends a COR (Correcting Omnipotent Being) into the simulation (...and God sent his only begotten son...that type of idea) and told people.
:The second story is half done, and I plan to continue writing it since I have it all layed out in my mind. Hopefully Jonbuck will read the first story and give some feedback before I finish, but I believe he will approve of both stories in any case. And if not, I will change them.
: -- [[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]] 04:24, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

:: *puts on peacemaker and teacher hats*
:: From what I can tell you're looking for an explicit statement of something that has been implicit in the setting design since the start...
:: Where the Solar System once sat is now a cloud of what you could call "Computronium". Inside this computer are many, many simulations. Whether these simulations are the creation of a separate physical being or the uploaded minds of people is a moot point - we'll never see the "real world". (btw, ROB could actually be an AI that was once a person...)
:: The stories all take place inside one of these simulations that has picked up a couple of viruses somewhere. One of them has been around since at least the late 70's (IIRC, this is mentioned in one of Jon's stories) and the other didn't appear until 1987. The one that showed up in 1987 - the "furry virus" - is newer and initially ROB had tried to contain it using the "Perception Filter". When it somewhat "merged" with the TG virus the simulation got a lot more unstable and ROB had to start including things in its "containment" to help combat that instability. That is the "history revision" stuff. It also is the cause of the changes to married couples with children - because it was seeing potential causes of instability (no more mother/father) and fixing it as it could.
:: There is no "ROB" actually in the simulation - think about the game "The SIMS"... In that game you are the ROB - the creator and maintainer of the simulation. And you can "Pause" the simulation, make changes and restart it. In this case at least the entirety of the solar system is part of the simulation and every time ROB has to make a change it "pauses" the simulation, makes the changes and then hits the "normal speed" button. Now... there might be some people in the world that are actually from outside the sim, but they'd never make themselves known - and they could, probably, act like the ROB and remove any evidence of themselves (outside of memories) from the sim.
:: -- [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] 04:21, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

::: I think a lot of the problems here is a misunderstanding of the source material I'm drawing inspiration for this setting from. Honeymane and ShadowWolf have both described things well. (Though I'm going to bump the TG virus back a few more centuries). A few points.
:::: * ROB exists outside the simulation. Other ROBs are not important. The Virus is not a ROB. However, ROB isn't really a physical being either, as SW describes.
:::: * The Virus originates outside the simulation. Who and what originally made it is a moot point.
:::: * The intent of said "virus" (the term only fits loosely) is to throw a monkeywrench into ROB's simulation of our universe. The reason why it hasn't been contained is that it was created by a slightly more advanced post-Singularity Mind than ROB. Since ROB can't contain it, ROB can only mitigate.
:::: * Essentially, the two virii are intended to cause social chaos via random transformations. It doesn't exist to propagate itself to other simulations. In the first case, a "quarantine" of sorts was created via modifying the present records of those TGed to reflect their new gender. If it was true history editing neither the person transformed nor the people who knew them would remember what they'd been. What ROB is changing are just the present physical objects.
:::Honestly, go read Part 2 of Accelerando. It was originally started as short stories, so you can pick it up there. That's where a lot of the concepts for Paradise started.
::: -- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 05:13, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

OK, it seems terminology is messing me up. I was under the apparently mistaken belief that ROB was the virus, and the Mainfraim running the simulation(s). I believed this because the virus was random and chainging someone to a furry is sort of mildy omnipotent. Yes, I fully agree that if ROB = Mainfraim(or AI who might have once been human) then ROB must definatly outside the simulation. My comments were consering only the virus(es) that are causing the transgender/furry transformations.
Let me call the form that can do either one or the other or both, the Random Omnipotent Virus, ROV for short so there will be no misunderstandings. I can see ROB stoping the simulation and making corections, eliminating divisions by zero and all that. However, ROV should not have those abilities, being just a lowly virus, compared to ROB. The stories I wish to write constrain ROV to using the same old laws that existed in 1987, and prior to that if there was the TG virus. The universe we live in now was supposed to be identical to that one until 1987, I would like that ROV should be handicaped a little by the rules ROB created for the simulation. A simulation is to test SOMETHING, and if you start changing the rules (ie laws of nature) your results are just not going to simulate the conditions you wanted to in the real world, where you don't have the power to change the laws of nature.
The experiments the humans are setting up in my first story will indicate only the effects being caused by ROV. If ROV is outside or inside the simulation does not really matter, but if ROV can behave just like ROB, then that study is just not going to produce anything interesting either scientifically, or plot wise. Such violations of the laws of nature might just scream at them "There really must be a god involved." and we never want them to know or suspect ROB or the true nature of ROV. To have a scientific study, I would like ROV to follow the laws of the universe, for any of the reasons described here and in prior posts. I will work out some reasons that make sense to the humans for all things happening regarding the transformations, to keep them studying and not just throw up their hands in frustration, if that is ok.
-- [[User:Enphilistor|Enphilistor]]

== Count of Changed in 1997 ==

Hello! I'm new here, but I really like this setting and read probably most of the stories. I even made my own table in Excel to draw the changing numbers as a graphic (Also for my hometown to get a grip on the numbers). And there I noticed something:

Maybe I just missed a story or paragraph where it is explained, but shouldn't there be 1024 Changed in 1997 instead of 1028? Where do the additional 4 Furries come from? I know this is just minor, but the error is kept through the following years till the end and all the numbers are wrong (It doesn't however change the fact that 2020 is the last year).

It's not so important, but it's been bugging me since I noticed it. -- [[User:TigeR|TigeR]] 15:53, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

:Check out the [[Paradise (Setting)]] page. It has all the numbers. -- [[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 02:16, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

:: Jon, you do have a +4 in 1997 over a strict doubling. This is what he was pointing out and asking questions about. -- [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] 02:18, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

::: And fixed! -- [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] 02:37, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

::: This error went a heck of a lot deeper and its possible that the skew-factor introduced in 1997 effected the percentages as time went into the future - however... I fixed this by hand and then verified the figures against a program that output every power of two from zero to the 33rd. As it stands this table now has correct figures for the furry population and one can only assume that the historical figures for population are correct and the projection fits the curve correctly. -- [[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] 02:55, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

== Paradise:The Soundtrack ==

Not sure about anyone else, but I find music to be a major inspiration.. Well of course it

is... the song "Strangers by Yoko Kanno" got this series off the ground did it not?

So I decided to put together a soundtrack, it's not available for download because I own

none of these songs... But if you happen to have them, you can arrange them in your iPod

Playlist, if you want.. I mean I'm not forcing ya, it's just a possibility.

: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0b58V573l8 '''Yoko Kanno''' - Strangers -_Wolf's Rain - Strangers by Sori Smile-_ ] <- { The begining of ALL of this... }

: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IroHea5FOj8 '''Bliss 66''' - Not Quite Paradise ] <- {''This song pretty much hits the entire series on the head... (It's from the ending of [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb2aMjprmdo Titan A.E.], damn good movie, do see it sometime)''}

:[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqds0B_meys '''Three Days Grace''' - Animal I Have Become]

:[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-scESgTnoUM '''Goo Goo Dolls''' - Iris]

: '''Mighty Bosstones''' - Impression That I Get

: '''Lee Brotherton''' - Dream Of An Asbolution

: '''Cash Cash''' - Speak With Your Heart

: '''Eminem''' - Beautiful

: '''Shania Twain''' - Man I Feel Like A Woman

: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE9zpOyNDoA '''Chip Tha Ripper''' - SLAB Freestyle -_What Are You Inside? - Furries In A Blender_- ] <- { ''Joke YouTube Entry'' }

: '''Tears For Fears''' - Everybody Wants To Rule The World

: '''Foo Fighters''' - The Pretender

and finally:

: '''John Mayer''' - Waiting On The World To Change

: %'''Crush 40'''% - %Is It You?% -_%http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFyPlBkqXR0%-_ <- {%''Is it you? Is it me? Is it everything we're meant to be? Is it here? Is it now? That only we can feel somehow''%}
I think I forgot some, but yeah, definitely these. - [[User:Hawl|Hawl]] (1/10/11, 1:55 PM)

: The new ''metadata format'' for the songlist is: %'''Artist'''% - %Songtitle% -_%YTtitle%-_ <- {%''comment''%}

::[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8IujL8_sMI '''Stanfour''' - For All Lovers] <- { ''My Favorite ; "...For all the Changeds, and Believers..."'' }

::[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4w3lPYoBX8 '''Stanfour''' - Everything Has Changed]

::[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mjlM_RnsVE '''Skillet''' - Monster]

::[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-makfpBrSQ '''Three Days Grace''' - Never too late]

: -- [[User:Argamis|Argamis]] 13:50, 03 February 2011 (UTC)

::"It's the new mother nature taking over
::It's the new splendid lady come to call
::It's the new mother nature taking over
::She's getting us all
::She's getting us all"
::—[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJbFVJvRqOQ '''The Guess Who'''] - No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature

::And then there's [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sgycukafqQ '''Linkin Park'' - What I've Done] from my Melton's Eleven stories…

::—[[User:Robotech Master|Robotech Master]] 06:51, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

== I Need a Date ==

Not that kind... I'd like the exact date of Tall Tales. Or maybe even a compilation of important events and when they happened. I don't mean the year, but the actual days. I hate sounding important like this, so please just try to roll with this and help. The important thing for me was Tall Tales. When did the convention take place? I've looked through this page, the story, and several related stories, but it never really mentioned a date, so if somebody knows, and they could get back to me on this, that would be great. Thanks. [[User:Atapari|Atapari]] 01:04, 28 February 2011 (UTC)

:If I was going to pin down an actual ''date'', I'd put it at Veteran's Day weekend. A lot of cons take place over a long weekend. As for the exact sequence of events, I'll have to reread the story. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 02:25, 28 February 2011 (UTC)

:It's actually a little hard to pin down the date. As I pointed out in the "Continuity Snarl" entry on [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Paradise the Paradise TVTropes page], it's strongly implied to take place in October (a character in Jetfire's "Clearing the Air" complains about its effects in a scene set on October 22nd, which is presumably a week or so after the con so those effects have had time to be felt), but Nikon's "Changing Perspectives" (which takes place concurrently with "Tall Tales") says it's set in November. Of course, neither of those people are JonBuck, who wrote the original story and gatekeeps the continuity, but neither of them is necessarily more valid than the other—though if we go by what Jon says above, Veteran's Day is in November. —[[User:Robotech Master|Robotech Master]] 03:07, 28 February 2011 (UTC)

Thanks a bunch, both of you. This'll help me finish my story. (By the way, I love all your stories. My own are sort of pathetic, but I aspire to be as good a writer as you.) [wow, that was corny.][[User:Atapari|Atapari]] 23:41, 28 February 2011 (UTC)

It's not too corny, Atapari, MatthiasRat is like my personal hero... Of course so is Robert Hallman, but for completely different reasons. Btw, if you're reading this Matty. Then you've earned this bad Sonata Artica/Winds Of Change reference. Diiiiiiiiiiiid you ever knooooow that you're my hero! And everything I would like to beeeeee. Cause you are the wiiiiiind beneath my wiiiiiiiiiiiings! See it's funny cause he inspired me with a TF story and I called him the wind beneath my wings... And... there's that other series... and... yeah I'll just shut up now. [[User:Hawl|Hawl]] 7:40, 3/5/2011 (UTC)

Update: I can say for sure that it was in October. I can't believe I missed this before: "Most of the furs were like Jerome and his girlfriend, only having changed two months ago."[[User:Atapari|Atapari]] 04:13, 1 March 2011 (UTC)

== Fanart Of The Changed ==

I just comissioned, as far as I know, the first ever Paradise Fanart. The art is Pokemon themed (Cause Pokemon Black's release is just around the corner), but the picture is of Iris (formely Cale) and Gabriel, the characters from my upcoming story. I'm writing a story to go along with the picture. Will post a link to it as soon as its done. The non-fan service story about them is almost finished. Just needs a few more paragraphs and revisions. It's part 1 in a series. This is exciting for me, I've never actually finished a story before... Well outside of one Paradise story I wrote a few months ago and never posted.... But I never submitted that to anywhere outside of furaffinity cause I was personally ashamed of it. Once again I'd like to give a shoutout to... whoever the real life Robert Hallman is, Charles Matthias, and Jon Buck for encouraging me to return to story writing and the furry fandom. (If you wanna read what I have so far of what I wrote, just type "Weird Girly Boy" in the search engine) - [[User:Hawl|Hawl]], 08:00, 3/5/2011, (UTC)

The Art's done, the story is awaiting an ending. Due to the Pokemon Crossover Nature, this story is incredibly non-cannon (Think Cascade Failure or The Future Is Paradise) and as a result never happened. These characters are from an upcoming series called "Paradisian Perspectives" which is a Paradise Mini-Series. The one in the front is "Gabriel Locke" and the one in the back is "Iris Vinole", though she was born "Cale Vinole" (TG'd)
I'll add them to the cast page when I finish "A Normal Type Of Day". I'd like to note that Iris, like most TG-Changed does not usually wear feminine clothing (and continues not to after Tall Tales, for comfort reasons) the sundress is merely something the artist decided to add though it is referenced in the story. I would like to repeat, POKEMON DO NOT EXIST IN PARADISE! THIS STORY ISN'T CANNON!
http://undead-romance.furaffinity.net/view/5416625/ - Drawn by a close personal friend, comissioned by me. (Story coming before the weekend ends) [[User:Hawl|Hawl]], 5:53PM, 3/17/2011 (EST)

== Shed vs Cut Fur ==

One of the lines in one of [[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat's]] stories gave me an idea for one of my own. The shared content is very small (an offhand line, never again mentioned in one, a small plot point with little impact on the plot in the other) and I'm asking him for permission now, but I also want to make sure that what I am thinking of is possible in the Paradise universe. I know that shedding fur is always a problem with the Changed, but I have also seen scenes (like where [[User:Eirik|Eiric's]] Dr. Clay sends some fur—deliberately cut—to be tested, and the results indicate normal human hair. Is this something that has been established in the world, or can I have fur cut from one of my Changed appear to be animal fur to the non-Changed? Thanks! - [[User:RunsWithFurs|Runs]][[User talk:RunsWithFurs|With]][[:Category:RunsWithFurs|Furs]] 09:58, 13 March 2011 (UTC)

:I've never really nailed down the rules here, but it's reasonable to assume the RDF isn't completely consistent. It's the same way with footprints. A lot depends on context, some condition that shed fur ''needs'' to be hidden. It's really dependent on what your story requires, when it comes down to it. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 01:58, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

::Thank you for the clarification; I thought that it would be something like that. I will be using visible fur for my story, then; what I am thinking of is not strictly ''necessary'', but I do think that it will add a bit of depth to the character. - [[User:RunsWithFurs|Runs]][[User talk:RunsWithFurs|With]][[:Category:RunsWithFurs|Furs]] 05:58, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

== Question on the time period ==

I was reading through the universe rules, and noticed (again, though this is the first time I remembered to follow up) that you ask us to submit any stories that take place pre-2001 to you. I am currently intending to set my story in that time period—somewhere in the mid/late 1990's—and am wondering how you would like us to send stories to you, once I get something written. Though I could set it later, I want my characters to be rather isolated, and, while the setting lends itself well to geographic isolation, low overall numbers would also be nice. Finally, I just wanted to make sure that it was all right for me to write a Paradise story; I realized that I never actually asked. Sorry! - [[User:RunsWithFurs|Runs]][[User talk:RunsWithFurs|With]][[:Category:RunsWithFurs|Furs]] 06:06, 15 March 2011 (UTC)

:Well, nobody has to ask me if they can write a Paradise story. Just tell me what your overall plans are. You don't have to submit the whole story to me first--I tend not to get to them. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 06:46, 15 March 2011 (UTC)

::Thank you. I'll probably wait a bit longer before saying anything, as my outline is not quite finalized yet. Main points, though: the main character visits relative's farm in early August. Change strikes while still on farm; aunt revealed to have previously changed. Main character stays with relative to get used to new form (neither knows of the network). As I said, this could be placed at practically any point on the timeline, but I find it seems to "click" better earlier. I apoligize if this is not the best way to run it by you, and if it is not enough information. I would be happy to give you a more in-depth outline, through whatever method you want, once it settles. Thanks again for putting up with me! - [[User:RunsWithFurs|Runs]][[User talk:RunsWithFurs|With]][[:Category:RunsWithFurs|Furs]] 23:48, 15 March 2011 (UTC)

==Aliens?==
:Would any intelligent beings elsewhere in the universe be affected by the change eventually? Of course, the fractal thing does make it so that it would be a LOOOOONG time after the Earth changes finish... [[User:Maine Cat|Maine Cat]] 21:07, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

::The answer is yes, they would. But I don't plan on introducing any aliens into this setting for the foreseeable future. --[[User:JonBuck|Buck]] 16:36, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

== It's The Most Transformational Time, Of The Year! ==

August 16th? How we all feeling today? I'm healthy as a horse sadly, no... not a Healthy Horse, a healthy human. *looks in his boxers* Male too....

Oh well.. *tucks a Victoria's Secret bag back into the closet*

Maybe next year :P

== The Blind and the RDF ==

So I was thinking about the change and how it would affect the disabled and such, and through the thoughts, I came to a realization... the blind may be able to naturally pierce the veil somewhat! Two factors come into this. First, a blind man is BLIND. The visual disguise of the RDF that makes a person look like they always looked has NO EFFECT, a blind person relying on touch. Second, it's generally said of the blind (and deaf) that with one sense out of comission, the other four senses become more acute and sensitive to make up for it, meaning they have more of a chance of feeling the hidden fur or claws. Now admittedly, people don't touch each other as much as they see each other unless they're shaking hands or something, but this COULD be an interesting hook for a story, don't you think?

Paradise (Setting)

2011-08-19T13:43:19Z

Chessrook44:

{{Universe|Paradise}}

{{byline|author=Jon Buck
|user=JonBuck}}

A direct link '''[[User:JonBuck/A Kind of Paradise|To the original story.]]'''

=={{separator|f|Stories in Chronological Order}}==

Authors may add links to their stories as they happen in chronological order in story time. For a complete listing of all Paradise stories, since this list may be updated sporadically, see [[:Category:Paradise|the Paradise Category]].

'''2000'''
*[[User:Erastus/On the Outside Looking|On the Outside, Looking...]] ''(Through 2010) ([[User:Erastus|Erastus]])''

'''2001'''
*[[Ranty Raccoon]] ''(Digitalpotato)''

'''2002'''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Made Alone|Made Alone]] ''([[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]])''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Bathing Alone|Bathing Alone]] ''([[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]])''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Not Quite Alone|Not Quite Alone]] ''([[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]])''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Suspected Alone|Suspected Alone]] ''([[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]])''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Revealing Alone|Revealing Alone]] ''([[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]])''

'''2003'''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Convention Building|Convention Building]] ''([[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]])''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Model Building | Model Building]] ''([[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]])''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Change Building | Change Building]] ''([[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]])''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Confession Building | Confession Building]] ''([[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]])''

'''2004'''
*[[User_talk:Enphilistor| Victory Starts Here]] [recovered from google cache] ''(Enphilistor)''

'''2005'''
*[[User:Jetfire/Holes in the Veil| Holes in the Veil]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Robotech_Master/Capsule_Review:_Changed:_The_Unveiling|RPG.net Capsule Review: Changed: The Unveiling]] ''([[User:Robotech_Master|Robotech_Master]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Lifting The Veil| Lifting The Veil]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Poking the Veil| Poking the Veil]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Chessrook44/Unforseen Changes| Unforseen Changes]] ''([[User:Chessrook44|Chessrook44]])''
*[[User:Chessrook44/Unforseen Reactions| Unforseen Reactions]] ''([[User:Chessrook44|Chessrook44]])''
*[[User:Eirik/Stages|Stages]] (Through October 2006) ''([[User:Eirik|Eirik]])''

'''2006'''
*[[User:Hawl/The Sexiest Of All Tiger Girls| The Sexiest of All Tiger Girls]] ''([[User:Hawl|Hawl]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Film at 2011| Film at 2011]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/GM'O'Fur| GM'O'Fur]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Twisting the Veil| Twisting the Veil]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Silver Fox Tracks|Silver Fox Tracks]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Generations| Generations]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/A Rolling Stone Gathers No Veil|A Rolling Stone Gathers No Veil]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Auld Lang Syne|Auld Lang Syne]] (Extends into 2007) ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Eirik/Reverberations|Reverberations]] ''([[User:Eirik|Eirik]])''
*[[User:Eirik/Bare Hands|Bare Hands]] ''([[User:Eirik|Eirik]])''

'''2007'''
*[[User:Eirik/Treatment|Treatment]] ''([[User:Eirik|Eirik]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/It Bears Investigation|It Bears Investigation]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Gaming Furs|Gaming Furs]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:JonBuck/A Kind of Paradise|A Kind of Paradise]] ''([[User:JonBuck|JonBuck]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Radio No Veil|Radio No Veil]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Six Furries and a Wedding|Six Furries and a Wedding]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:JonBuck/Tall Tales|Tall Tales]] ''([[User:JonBuck|JonBuck]])''
*[[User:Nikon/Changing Perspectives|Changing Perspectives]] ''([[User:Nikon|Nikon]])''
*[[User:Nikon/Back to Reality|Back to Reality]] ''([[User:Nikon|Nikon]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Clearing the Air|Clearing the Air]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Eirik/Waters_So_Cold_and_Deep|Waters So Cold and Deep]] ''([[User:Eirik|Eirik]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Doing Hard Time|Doing Hard Time]] (Extends into 2008) ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[Monkey Business]] ''([[User:Boss Hoss|Boss Hoss]])''
*[[User:Nikon/Coming Home|Coming Home]] (guess based on posting date) ''([[User:Nikon|Nikon]])''

'''2008'''
*[[User:Jetfire/Live_At_Five|Live At Five]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Rising Waters|Rising Waters]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Gulf_Ice|Gulf Ice]] (Prelude in 2001) ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/The_Bear_Facts|The Bear Facts]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Election Fever|Election Fever]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Eirik/Centers of Power|Centers of Power]] ''([[User:Eirik|Eirik]])''
*[[User:JonBuck/Open Secrets|Open Secrets]] ''([[User:JonBuck|JonBuck]])''
*[[User:WolfyDrake95/New_World|New World]] ''([[User:WolfyDrake95|WolfyDrake95]])''
*[[User:WolfyDrake95/To_a_Friend|To a Friend]] ''([[User:WolfyDrake95|WolfyDrake95]])''
*[[User:Chessrook44/Incarceration|Incarceration]] ''([[User:Chessrook44|Chessrook44]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Special Care|Special Care]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/NorBAC|NorBAC]] (begins in June; jumps to September) ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Judge_Judy:_Deagle_vs_Anderson|Judge Judy: Deagle vs Anderson]] (2008 or 2009) ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''

'''2009'''
*[[User:JonBuck/After Hours|After Hours]] ''([[User:JonBuck|JonBuck]])''

'''2010'''
*[[User:JonBuck/Changing America|Changing America]] (work in progress) ''([[User:JonBuck|JonBuck]])''
*[[User:Robotech_Master/See Change: March 20, 2010|See Change: March 20, 2010]] ''([[User:Robotech_Master|Robotech_Master]])''
*[[User:Robotech_Master/Tiffnapped|Tiffnapped]] ''([[User:Robotech_Master|Robotech_Master]])''
*[[User:Robotech_Master/Holding Helena|Holding Helena]] ''([[User:Robotech_Master|Robotech_Master]])''

'''Alternate Future'''
*[[Cascade Failure]]

=={{separator|f|Basics}}==
*The setting is basically indistinguishable from the Real World up until 1987, the year when people first begin to spontaneously transform into furries.
*Exactly one person transformed in Year One ''(i.e.,'' 1987), and the number of furries doubles in late August each year. The initial story in this setting, [[User:JonBuck/A Kind of Paradise|A Kind of Paradise]], is set in Year 21 ''(i.e.,'' 2007), when there are just over one million furries. The next year (2008) will add a million, for a total of two megafurries, and so forth.
*The first furry in 1987 was a vixen, with a tod the next year. Some stereotypes do have a basis in "reality". :)
**The entire world will be furry in 2020.
*Every year it's possible that an already-changed person could change ''again''. With increasing rarity, all less than one percent:
**A species change. ("What the..? I'm a ''wolf'' now? What am I supposed to do with all these hoof picks?")
**A gender change. ("Where do men put this ''thing'' between our legs when we sit down?")
**A combination of both. ("Don't ''even'' call me a bitch! Just show me how to put on this stupid bra!")
**The next year there is about a 25% chance that the person will revert to their original gender/first species. If that doesn't happen, it's fixed. If they change back... there's another 25% chance that you'll bounce back ''again'' the next year. So there's some potential for characters who spend years alternating between species/gender.
*Also distinctive from Winds of Change: ''No superpowers''. Just whatever natural abilities (things like augmented senses, physical strength, ''etc)'' come from being half animal.
*'''The Role Reversal Paradox.'''
**''IF'' the couple has children, pre- or post-Change, no matter what age...
**''IF'' one of the couple has been transgendered...
**''THEN'' it is essentially a sure thing that the partner will TG as well.
**The reason for this is simple. ROB hates paradoxes. If they have children, there ''must'' be a father and a mother. And it ''must'' be the same two people. It doesn't matter if that person divorced and remarried someone else. Or if they're unmarried. One father, one mother. Otherwise, the kids will logically not have come into existence.
**Conversely, if they are married/going out/living together/etc., the same TG 1% dice roll applies to them as everyone else.

'''Important.''' Please ''do not'' write stories that are father ahead in the timeline than those I have written.''

'''Note on Politics'''. As a request, I ask authors not to use major political figures from Real Life. I don't want any political bashing going on here. Characters like Congressman Sandrick are perfectly fine, so feel free to create fictional members of Congress or Members of Parliament. Remember this world is different from ours from 1987 onwards. There are still details I haven't filled in between then and now, and the Butterfly Effect means that there will be some small, some major differences.

{{add|'''Winners of the 2008 Election'''}}
*President: Karen Hutchinson. (Reverse Pres. Obama and his wife, basically)
*VP: Steven Angstrom

===The Transgendered===
Just a few details.
#This is an earlier, generally harmless virus that got into the simulation. ROB dealt with it by the "history editing" as described in the stories.
#It's been around a LOT longer than the Furry Virus.
#Even though it's probably been around for thousands of years, there are far fewer victims than the Furry Virus as of 2009. I imagine the furry virus co-opted this one for the TGed furs.
#As in real life, there are many more male to female victims than the other way around.
#Transgendered victims have little or no support system like furries do. They're generally isolated. And before 2009 couldn't see through the RDF.

===Physiology===

*Furries can still interbreed with one another as if they were all still human. Children most often follow their parents' species, however, they can also follow their grandparents species, or something out of left field.
*Conversely, humans '''cannot''' interbreed with furries, probably due to the RDF.
*There are some physical variations, but not the wide "Degrees" that Winds of Change has. The most obvious differences are hair, feet, and hands. Otherwise, most everyone is about as morphic as seen in common furry art.
**Females most often have hair the same color and similar texture as their fur. Though you do still get the occasional blond.
**Males retain their hair less frequently.
*'''Size Limitations.''' On the suggestion from the Talk page. I'm not going to limit species. However, I will have a minimum/maximum size range:
**7 feet (or 2.1m), max. About 600 lb (272 kg), max.
**4 feet (1.2m). I'll leave the small side open.
*Species are native to a particular continent. So most people in North America will end up whitetail deer, elk, bears, foxes, wolves, etc. Recent immigrants will more likely end up native species to wherever they came from.
**However, this means that someone from Seattle could ''still'' end up a leopard, or a llama, or what-have-you from other continents. I just want to make that clear.
**No mythicals like dragons, griffins, satyrs, vampires, mages, what-have-you. Just furries.
**No birds, reptiles, or other non-mammals.
*'''No Extinct Species.''' No dinosaurs. Sadly, I can't include them. There are so many species that are just too big.
*'''Note on Transsexuals'''. This setting is intended as a mix of wish fulfillment and darker, more realistic consequences. That said, all TS folks get their bodies "corrected". Keep in mind that this won't necessarily make life easier for said character. Conflict generates Plot. And since most of the folks who get their gender switched ''won't'' be TS, there's still plenty of that around.
*Results of major surgeries are translated. Artificial hips, knees and pacemakers still work as needed. Transplant patients will not reject their organs. However, lost limbs will not regenerate and major chronic diseases will not be cured, but may go into a lengthy remission.
*One of the major benefits is a major improvement in health and fitness. ROB can't stop the change, but at least he can give the victims a sort of consolation prize. You may not end up in perfect shape, but it'll be close. A flood of positive endorphins to make the victim feel good about their new bodies doesn't hurt, either (optional). Now, what happens to that state of fitness ''after'' is entirely up to your characters.

===Psychology===
*At this point I'm inclined to have some mitigating effects on the "victims". It's still going to be very, very hard to deal with. This is a major life disruption. And there are no doubt a lot of secluded furs. But suicides aren't as common as you'd think.
*The transgendered furs do have an even rougher time. The double-whammy of species and gender would likely make serious post-change Issues a reality.
**Transgendered furs typically refer to themselves by their initials: BD, DL, etc..
**Some might end up going a little crazy and think they had ''always been'' their new gender, especially after the effects of Tall Tales Con.
*The more adjusted furs have figured out how to find these troubled souls and bring them back into the real world.

=={{separator|f|The Reality Distortion Field (Veil)}}==
*Humans can't see furries for what they are. They still see whatever the person looked like before, even if that person was the opposite gender.
*Some things aren't filtered correctly. Consequently...
**If a TGed man gets pregnant, the filter will change that person's ghost image to female. But she will still appear human to other humans.
**Things like hoof/paw prints, shed fur, shed antlers, clawmarks, animal odors, etc., are not filtered. So if a cougar morph gets in a fight with a normal human and lashes out with his claws, he could cause a hell of a lot of damage.
**Some humans think that there is something up (referred to as "Known" or "Friends"). And some have figured out that the friends who claim to be furry actually ''are'' what they claim to be.
*The RDF sometimes breaks down a little during large gatherings of furries (like at conventions). "Hey, that's the best costume I've ever seen! Is that a prosthetic muzzle?" Memories afterwards will probably remember some really good costumes, and photos will be perceived as such.
**In more extreme cases it will break down entirely. But it would take repeated exposures, or perhaps having a number of furry friends while remaining humans oneself. Like in [[User:Nikon/Changing_Perspectives|Changing Perspectives]].
**Transgendered furs may be perceived by humans as their new gender out of the corner of their eye. And there are likely other circumstances where the human RDF image will realign also. Specific circumstances (such as pregnancy) will be the decisive factor.
**As of 2007, TGed TallTales Con attendees have had a major RDF alteration. Everyone except family, friends, or people who have seen them often enough to really know, will perceive them as their new physical sex. Which is essentially the vast majority of people. This effect will spread to all the other TGed until 2008, when it becomes the norm.
**'''As of 2009''', all human ghosts now reflect their real gender, no matter who is looking.
*Do animals perceive the RDF? Probably not. But the odor of a fur is neither quite human or animal. There are still some common human pheromones, for example. Which is what makes romance between wolf and deer possible. This is a ''good'' thing, since it means that a doe-woman in heat won't be chased down by a normal buck.
*It may start to break down as there grow to be millions of furries in the world (see below).
*Another storytelling idea: The RDF is an ''antiviral measure'' (see The Cause below). When the RDF breaks down, people ''may'' change out-of-phase, since they no longer have that protection. This will make it harder to track down people who change and get them the help they need. This is ''not'' a hard-and-fast rule, but the storytelling device is available. But I '''don't''' want it to become commonplace.

==={{separator|f|Holes in the Veil}}===

As seen in [[User:JonBuck/After Hours|After Hours]], on August 29, 2009 the Veil started coming down.

*First one appeared in Hyannis, MA on August 29. It quickly expanded to (size to be determined) and outed every furry in town. Other holes appeared in and around Chicago. Without exception they appear first where there's been a recent or frequent concentration of furs.
*Holes start small, but will grow depending on how weak the RDF is in the area.
*As the RDF decays, furs will feel like they're wrapped in loose plastic. And there's something of a light show. The air shimmers. The air feels cleaner, fresher.
**The RDF is an extra "rendering layer" of sorts. Since until now all furs had lived with it, they only really notice it was there now that it's been taken away. Leaving a Hole a fur will feel like he or she is wearing clothing a size too small or too large, depending on how much they deviate from the human norm. A really sensitive fur might feel suffocated, as if they were wrapped in plastics. They'll feel irritable and given the right situation, may tear ''new'' Holes (which could make good story fodder).
*They're like soap bubbles in that if they encounter other holes, they'll grow even larger. All of them are still slowly expanding, and may jump to larger sizes at unpredictable intervals.
*ROB will start a controlled shutdown of the RDF over the course of the year. Its replacement will be a Weirdness Censor.
**The world is going furry crazy. But not ''crazy crazy''. Using a cooking analogy, it's like a foamed egg whites getting folded into a souffle or other dish that needs careful mixing, or the recipe falls apart.

*Furs feel much more comfortable with themselves inside the holes. To furs, the RDF feels like restrictive clothing. Doubly so for the TGed furs. Even normal humans feel better. Caveats:
**Normal humans who spend more and more time inside one of these holes run increasing risk of becoming furry at any time of the year ahead.
**Once the RDF is down completely in late 2010, the above may apply to everyone. The numbers are still doubling as below, but the August 17 restriction no longer applies. And as above, a TG can happen before a TF.
**Furries cease being humans in funny costumes. Their animal natures will more easily bob to the surface. This is partly for psychological reasons (don't have to hide any more). Partly due to the pressure from the RDF being gone.

=={{separator|f|The Numbers}}==

Total sequence as follows (all figures approximate):
Year AD Total Furries Total Populace Furries, as %age of total populace
1 1987 1 5,184,212,887 0.000 000 02%
2 1988 2 5,247,179,035 0.000 000 04%
3 1989 4 5,310,909,955 0.000 000 05%
4 1990 8 5,375,414,934 0.000 000 15%
5 1991 16 5,440,703,374 0.000 000 3%
6 1992 32 5,506,784,792 0.000 000 6%
7 1993 64 5,573,668,818 0.000 001 1%
8 1994 128 5,641,365,200 0.000 002%
9 1995 256 5,709,883,806 0.000 004%
10 1996 512 5,779,234,621 0.000 009%
11 1997 1,024 5,849,427,754 0.000 018%
12 1998 2,048 5,920,473,436 0.000 035%
13 1999 4,096 5,992,382,020 0.000 07%
14 2000 8,192 6,065,163,988 0.000 14%
15 2001 16,384 6,138,829,947 0.000 3%
16 2002 32,768 6,213,390,635 0.000 5%
17 2003 65,536 6,288,856,918 0.001%
18 2004 131,072 6,365,239,795 0.002%
19 2005 262,144 6,442,550,400 0.004%
20 2006 524,288 6,520,800,000 0.008%
21 2007 1,048,576 6,600,000,000 0.016%
22 2008 2,097,152 6,680,161,943 0.031%
23 2009 4,194,304 6,761,297,514 0.062%
24 2010 8,388,608 6,843,418,536 0.123%
25 2011 16,777,216 6,926,536,980 0.24%
26 2012 33,554,432 7,010,664,959 0.48%
27 2013 67,108,864 7,095,814,736 0.95%
28 2014 134,217,728 7,181,998,721 1.87%
29 2015 268,435,456 7,269,229,474 3.69%
30 2016 536,870,912 7,357,519,711 7.30%
31 2017 1,073,741,824 7,446,882,298 14.42%
32 2018 2,147,483,648 7,537,330,262 28.49%
33 2019 4,294,967,296 7,628,876,783 56.30%
34 2020 8,589,934,592 7,721,535,206 >100%

At this point stories should take place in '''2001 at the earliest''', up to the current story-time year. The community gets really, really small before then. If you have a story that takes place in this era, submit it to me first. Thank you.

Things should start to get really interesting around 2010. There's enough furs in the world then that niche markets would start to open up. More clothing and products specifically designed for furries start popping up. Also, it will become harder and harder to induct new furs into the group in a healthy manner. Society may start to break down in places.

It will take a concerted effort by those previously changed to keep everything under control...

'''Distribution.''' It's not random, or even. It's an expanding fractal centered on the Chicago area. As far as visualization, I'll leave that vague. But the majority of the first furs were in North America.

From the way these stories are playing out, I'd say that events are unfolding like this:

*'''1987-2002''': "Alone" period. Isolation between furries, with only a few very small groups, most of them thinking they're all alone. Best exemplified by [[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat's]] stories. Nobody knows what's going on.
*'''2002-2008''': Forming Communities. There's now enough furs to start encountering each other regularly. Conventions start up. Anthro imagery (in movies, TV shows, and other media) start to show up more frequently. Information getting put together indicates an ominous trend. The whole world will eventually go furry.
*'''2008-?''': Events unfolding in [[User:JonBuck/Open Secrets|Open Secrets]] will nail down this theme. {{add|From here for the next few years, a third to nearly a half of the new Changed will be Known/Friends or family members. People who can see through the Veil easily.}}

===Important Events===
This section will be for events of note that will be important to the overall storytelling. Authors feel free to note important events in your works that could impact the setting as a whole here.

'''2007'''
*First instances of total, permanent [[User:Nikon/Changing Perspectives|RDF breakdown]]. Incidents isolated.
*First appearance of anthro dolphins. The RDF with these people is a very strained affair. The longer they stay around humans, the more likely it'll fail. Perhaps it realigns the image as a normal dolphin in the water, and a human on land.
*'''Added 2/24.''' Transgendered furs at [[User:JonBuck/Tall Tales|Tall Tales Con]] now appear as their new physical gender to anyone but close friends and family. The RDF is even actively changing identification. Active records like passports and driver's licenses, medical records are all altered to reflect this. Even a pre-Change photo ID will show the new human face, which will be a shock to the TGed fur. This effect is slowly spreading to other TGed furs, see [[User:Jetfire/Doing Hard Time|Doing Hard Time]].
*A number of pressing environmental problems relax slightly. While these solutions will solve some problems, they will cause others, especially in the short term.
**The recovery of the major world fisheries detected in the mid-90s continues apace.
**Major discoveries in energy include massive oilfields in various stable First World nations: US, Canada, UK, Norway, etc..
**Scientists observe CO2 levels stabilizing for currently unknown reasons.
**Third World experiences boosts in food production from improved farming practices and soil conditions.
**New renewable energy discoveries, new batteries, a bacterial process for making gasoline and diesel from municipal wastewater.
*With all these new furs, there are now enough singles to start pairing up. The lingering worries about fertility and children will be answered next year...

'''2008'''
*Fallout from Tall Tales Con continues. All newbie and furry gatherings the next year will be much, much smaller, informal.
*Although there were a few before this year, this is the first year a large number of furry babies will be born.
*A Changed rabbit appears as ''Playboy'''s September Playmate of the Month (though only other Changed/Changed-sensitive know it until later).

'''2009'''
*This Change Day will be different from the others. Instead of all happening in the same moment, the new furs will happen in fits and starts throughout the day. Some might change in the early morning, others late that night. The trend will continue over the next few years.
**Another wrinkle. If there's a TG, they don't have to happen at the same time. So some poor fellow who becomes a clouded leopard in the morning (or a woman) will get hit again sometime later.
* The shoe field died in 2008. Now the Veil no longer hides clothing modifications. For some furs this might be a Veil-breaker. We will see.
*Since [[User:JonBuck/Open Secrets|Open Secrets]], the secret is functionally out, though a sort of [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WeirdnessCensor Weirdness Censor] is in place, possibly due to widespread denial. Furry imagery started to dominate the media after the first of the year, especially on medical dramas and "what if" shows on National Geographic, Discovery Channel, even the Food Network. Mostly done with CGI, a few shows used furry actors and cameras able to see through the Veil. More to be revealed in [[User:JonBuck/After Hours|After Hours]].
* '''The Shutdown''', August 17-25. With a major Sleeping Sickness outbreak, much of the world economy shut down for a little over a week, with only essential services (energy, food transport, etc.) kept running. Similar to what Mexico did during the Swine Flu outbreak. Later they are accused of overreacting, as Sleeping Sickness seems to leave a minuscule number of deaths, and the victims healthier than before they contracted it.

'''2010'''
*Tiffany Tanner appears as the first Changed to play a Changed in a recurring role on daytime television. With the aid of a special lens, Tiffany's character "Felice Hunter" on ''One Life to Live'' dramatizes the plight of Changed forced to keep secrets from family and friends. Her stint on the show is briefly interrupted when she is kidnapped for several weeks, after which she again makes headlines as one of "Melton's Eleven," eleven furres who had been kidnapped for the private amusement of a twisted, reclusive millionaire (who vanished shortly before they escaped).

=={{separator|f|The Cause}}==

So, why is this happening? What's causing it? A nanotech virus? Microscopic magic pixies? The return of magic? The wrath of God? What?

The answer is contained in '''[[User:JonBuck/Tall Tales|Tall Tales]]'''.

However, the idea is this. Ever since I read [http://www.accelerando.org/ ''Accelerando''] By Charles Stross, I've been enamored with the idea of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity technological Singularity]. So I've been looking for a way to use it in my fiction at one point. This setting provides the answer to that desire. ''Accelerando'' is available for free on the web.

Our universe--or perhaps just our planet, I haven't decided yet--and all the people in it, are basically a simulation. This doesn't make the characters in these stories any less real than you our I. Mathematics forms the basis of the universe, after all. The people are as sentient as you or I. This makes the setting rather Matrix-like, without the human bodies being used as "batteries". We're all more like Agent Smith.

I refer to this as a "furry virus". It comes from outside the post-Singularity brain, and is slightly more advanced than "ours". What's happening is this bit of malicious code (sentient, no less, but on a level far beyond our ability to comprehend it) is messing up the simulated world we reside in. Why? I dunno. One of those inscrutable things. The RDF is an antiviral measure to contain the damage and allow the society within to adapt. This is also why so far, furry species are limited to mammals. As the numbers of furs increase, that ''will'' change. I have yet to decide just when.

Why not just scrap the whole thing and restore from backup? There are no backups because the simulated people are nevertheless living beings. And they can't just be wiped out.

I hope that explanation isn't too confusing. Please let me know on the '''[[Talk:Paradise (Setting)|Talk Page]]''' if you have questions.

=={{separator|f|Notes on Avatars}}==
So far, the convention for avatars in this setting is for writers to use the first initials of first and last names. However, I wanted to note that my intent here is to give the writer more freedom than to base these characters on yourself. I've changed a lot of details about Jerome, for instance. If you want to put your avatar--if you decide to use one--into this setting, go crazy. Give them a challenge (worse job, emotional trouble). Or make them better off and have the change cause a lot of trouble with work/family/whatever. What I'm trying to say here is, don't feel you have to be directly limited by your present or past self. ''Have fun.''

=={{separator|f|Important Cast}}==

'''[[Paradise Cast List]]'''

Since this is a wiki, that means everyone can edit it. Authors who want to put names and short bios of the characters in their stories, just in case someone else wants to use them for a cameo. With the characters, please list the stories that they appear in. Please put your cast members on the linked cast page. Thank you.

[[Category:Paradise]]

User:Chessrook44/Incarceration

2011-08-17T18:52:59Z

Chessrook44:

== Incarceration==

Warden Sanchez sat in his office, a bottle of vodka sitting on his desk as he glanced over the folders before him. There had been a riot earlier that day, but it had been quelled and he was looking over those involved now. It wasn’t quite certain what had started the riot, but it had ended up with several people sent to the infirmary with strange cuts and lacerations.

More curious, however, was five of the prisoners involved. They had over their time incarcerated formed their own small gang known as The Pack. He’d read over their files and the information regarding their capture and stories, but there were still several parts that didn’t quite make sense in some cases. Why did the strangest of the lot have to form their own gang?

Taking a shot of vodka from the bottle he picked up the first folder and looked over the picture. It showed a short man in his late thirties, eyes barely looking at the camera. It had taken them several tries to get a good enough picture with how jumpy he was. “James R. Palenko, A.K.A. Jimmy the Rat…”

----

“There! Hey you! Stop!”

The officer yelled out at a figure he saw dash past a streetlight with a large bag over his shoulder. He was on patrol that night when he heard a call about a break in at a nearby house. He was on his way there when he saw the figure leaping down the street, clearly in a hurry.

Quickly, he turned on the sirens and chased after the figure, lights catching him now and then as he caught up. It wasn’t long before the thief (it had to be the thief, who else would run from a cop?) turned and ducked into a nearby alley. Cursing, the officer leapt out of his car and ran after him. “Halt! Police!”

The chase ran through the alleys of the buildings, and the officer was thankful for all the trips to the gym he made, climbing over the occasional fence and leaping around dumpsters. Whoever this person was, they were in good shape. After a long chase it seemed he lost him, running up to find an empty street, no sign of the thief anywhere.

He stood in the middle of the street, listening, the sounds of traffic in the distance. ''Damn,'' he thought. H''e got away. Chief’s gonna have my gun for-''

He froze. He heard something, almost like a squeak of a rat, coming from a nearby dumpster. Carefully, he stepped towards it, pulling out his gun and listening. There was rummaging, followed by the sound of a faint curse. “Come out of there!” he cried out, pulling up his gun. “I know you’re in-”

What came next happened so fast he later wondered if he was seeing things clearly. Some… THING leapt out of the garbage bin, looking almost like some kind of monster. It tried to run down the street, but in his shock the officer fired, the creature collapsing to the ground. When the officer approached it, he found the short figure lying on the ground, blood pooling from the bullet wound in his leg. The bag was lying next to him, opened and with silverware and china spilling out of it onto the street.

The officer lifted up his radio. “Officer Kendall here… I got the thief on Wilson Boulevard. Gave me quite a chase too…”

----

“…found guilty of breaking and entering and attempted theft. Sentenced to five years. Incarcerated 2007.” Sanchez looked down at the notes again. James had been shot in the leg, but recovered fairly quickly. In the prison he tended to stay out of the way, but listened a lot. Unfortunately he seemed to be reporting information to the leader of the Pack.

He closed Jimmy’s folder and thought over it. Of the five of them, he was the most normal, despite being as jumpy as he was. Maybe he just got bad luck in which group he decided to join up with. Turning back to the pile of folders, he picked up the next one.

The next picture showed a man with untidy brown hair and a long, handsome face that you could trust. Then again, that was what had allowed him to get away with his crime as long as he did. “Cliff Henderson, A.K.A. Clyde…”

----

“…I promise you, this is the best crack you’ll find this side of the city.”

The detective stood at the far end of the street, keeping a wary eye at the alley on the opposite side, the tall man talking to the plant they had set up. They’d found out that someone was dealing in the area and were trying to find him. Seemed like they finally had, and she was waiting for the right moment.

“Yeah yeah, I’m sure. Look just… just give it to me, okay?” The plant said. He did a good job playing the role of a junkie just trying to get one more whiff. Then again that was why they hired him. He was good at his job. “How much?”

“Two hundred,” said the dealer. “Hand it over.” The plant nodded and took out a wad of cash. “Yeah yeah, just… let me see the stuff first, alright? I need to see it.”

The detective stifled a chuckle as the dealer held out a bag of white powder. Whoever this Clyde guy was, he was sloppy, dealing in the middle of an alley. He started to hand the stuff over, and the money touched his hand… when suddenly he seemed to sniff, and pulled his hands back with both the cocaine and the money. “You’re setting me up!”
The detective cursed. “Shit, now!” Suddenly, from the other end of the alley two policemen appeared, guns drawn and aimed at the dealer. He whirled around and yelled at them before spinning and knocking down the plant, taking off into the street. Frantically, the detective chased after him. “Stop right there! Hey!”

Though the detective considered herself in good shape, the dealer was amazing, running along the street at an incredible pace, almost inhuman! The detective panted as she pulled up her radio and yelled into it. “Suspect running down… down fifth, passing Washington… he’s fast, dammit!” Suddenly sirens went off, and the dealer leapt down another road.

The chase lasted almost half an hour, and any time the detective seemed to be catching up the dealer seemed to find another burst of speed. Finally, the other policemen managed to cut him off, one of the cars nearly slamming into him. He froze and whirled around like a frightened animal before the detective ran up and tackled him to the ground. The dealer let out a strange nickering cry as the detective grabbed her handcuffs. “You have the right… to remain silent…”

----

“…found guilty of unlawful possession and distribution of three different illegal drugs. Sentenced to 15 years. Incarcerated 2007.” Sanchez drowned another shot of alcohol. After the arrest, cops found and searched over Cliff’s apartment and found several stashes of illegal drugs, though complained of some stench that they couldn’t identify.

Sanchez looked over the picture in the file. Cliff was in fairly good shape when he was brought in, but a half an hour run at speeds as fast as any sprinter was unheard of. He thought he was doing some sort of steroids or drugs, but the urine tests showed him clean of anything of the sorts.

In The Pack, Cliff had found his way as the voice of the group, using words to get the other prisoners to listen before force would be necessary. He was also a hell of a fighter, and many who had crossed him had come in to the infirmary wondering if they’d ever be able to bear children.

The warden sighed and turned to the third file, opening it up. Inside was an image of a young kid fresh from college, maybe 21 with black hair. He had a white dyed streak through it, and looked, quite frankly, petrified. “Anthony Ryan, A.K.A. Stripes…”

----

“…and how do you plead, Mr. Ryan?”

“Innocent, I swear! It was an accident!” Cried the kid standing before the judge.

“It was an accident that you ran out of the store in question with a radio?” Asked the judge, eyeing him warily.

“I, er, um, yes it was…” Anthony said, stumbling over his words.

“Explain this, please,” said the judge. “Because I’d like to hear how running out of the store and then leading the mall security on a fifteen minute chase would qualify as an ‘accident’.”

“Well I, er…” The young man muttered. “I was, um, browsing for a new stereo… you know, for my apartment? When some guy startled me and I spr… I um, got scared and ran.” He looked down at last part.

“Some man startled you and you ran with a brand new radio?” The judge asked, disbelieving. “Hard to believe.”

“It’s true, I swear! I forgot I was holding it until I was outside and several stores down, and when I saw the mall cops after me I got scared and…”

“And you kept running, I assume?”

“Yes! I panicked! When you see police chasing after you you just… I don’t know! Keep running, even if it’s a misunderstanding!”

“At least until you trip and fall into the mall’s fountain and ruin the radio you stole,” finished the judge.

“I didn’t steal it!” Retorted Anthony desperately.

The judge just sighed. “No, you didn’t, just borrowed, is that it?”

Anthony was nervous, a bit of sweat dripping down his forehead. “I… I was going to bring it back, I swear, but I don’t have the money to pay for it after it fell in the water. Look I-”

“Mr. Ryan,” the judge said, looking down at him intently. “If you could not purchase the radio, why were you holding it? And why give some flimsy excuse like ‘you were startled’? I’m sorry, but since you can’t produce a valid excuse or pay for the damages I’m going to have to find you…”

----

“…guilty of petty theft. Sentenced to six months. Incarcerated 2008.” Sanchez remembered hearing about the trial. The kid was dragged out of the room screaming something about “knowing changes” or other. It wasn’t quite clear. The whole thing may have been an accident, but there was no way of knowing.

The kid had only arrived in the prison a month prior, but in just a week he had been taken into The Pack and nicknamed Stripes. Nobody could quite figure out why he was accepted so quickly when other prisoners had been trying to get in for a while now, especially when Anthony seemed to smell worse than any of the other prisoners when they’d gone a month without washing.

Sanchez turned to the fourth file, opening it up to reveal a man in his late 20’s with ragged gray hair, his lips curled in an angry snarl. This one was an unknown, nobody knew his name or any history, and he insisted on being known under a title. “Name Unknown, A.K.A. The Werewolf of Manhattan, A.K.A. Beta…”

----

“…I’m sorry, did you just say you wanted this gang?”

The man in the ragged clothes grinned. “Yeah you heard me right, fucker. I should be the Alpha in this gang, not you.” The other gang members watched from nearby as he faced their leader of three years.

The leader laughed. “Oh is that so? And why the hell should I make you the grand almighty leader of the Wolf Gang?”

The man grinned. “Because I’m the fucking Werewolf of Manhattan, that’s why. Can’t you see it?” He held his arms out. For whatever he called himself, he looked pretty pitiful. Barefoot, with ragged hair and torn clothes.

The leader lifted his head back and laughed. “The WHAT of Manhattan?! Fuck man, you look like you were MAULED by a wolf! Why don’t you go back to whatever hole you crawled out of and let the big boys do their work.” He waved his hand dismissively, shooing the man off.

The man wouldn’t take it, however. “Oh I see,” he said. “You can’t see it either. You can’t see how fucking perfect I am to lead this gang. Nobody else could. Nobody else believed me.”

The leader chuckled. “What are you, crazy? You’re just some punk I picked up off the streets. You couldn’t lead a horse to water!” This got a couple chuckles from his groupies.

The man fumed. “You don’t think I could do it, huh? Well then we’re the Wolf Gang, how about we settle this like wolves? I challenge you to a fight. I win, I get the gang. You win, and I’ll lay over and let you lead.”

The leader raised an eyebrow. “You fucking serious? I’d break both your arms like twigs, no way you’d win.

The man gave a malicious grin. “Dead serious. And I’ll see you dead before me. Hand to hand, right here, right now. You and me. Or are you too much of a chicken to fight me?”

That got the leader. He stepped forward. “I’m no chicken, I eat them for breakfast. You and me right here.” He gestured at the other members of the gang. “Make a circle, make a circle!”

The other members backed up, forming a wide circle around the two. The leader tore off his shirt, saying he wanted to use it to mop up the blood when he was done. The man just stood at the other end, glaring at him with an inhuman madness in his eyes, eagerness in his grin.

The two backed up to the edges of the circle, facing each other. The man growled at the leader, watching him as they paced, the other gang members starting to cheer on. “Come on,” taunted the leader, beckoning. “Come on you, let’s see what the great fucking Werewolf of Manhattan’s got!”

Nobody was expecting what happened next. With a savage, inhuman cry the man leapt forward at the leader. Fear was written on his face as they grappled, blood flying almost instantly. Several of the gang members thought for just a moment, they saw an actual werewolf fighting in the dim light.

The battle was a short fury of yelps and shouts and barks and cries, but it ended with the leader, dead on the ground, strange claw marks over his body, his throat hanging out of his neck. The man stood there over the body with his hands covered in blood, panting, before he tilted his head back and let out a long howl of victory. Finally he cried out, “I AM THE ALPHA! I LEAD THIS GANG!” He looked around at the other gang members. “Anyone dare question me?”

Nobody said a word.

----

“…convicted of three counts of first degree murder. Sentenced to life in prison. Incarcerated 2006.” Beta led his Wolf Gang for half a year before police managed to capture him. The gang had killed few people before, but Beta’s kills were notable in that none of them had bullets or blade wounds. Each one looked like it had been viciously mauled, with the throat torn out. Sanchez rubbed his neck as he thought about that, and poured himself another shot of vodka.

Beta was about as bloodthirsty as he was ambitious. He was the second-in-command of The Pack, and the guards believed him the instigator of the riots, fighting throughout them until he was hit by a tazer round. He always looked pissed off whenever anyone called him Beta, and he clearly wanted to be the leader of The Pack.

Not that that was going to happen anytime soon, considering the leader of the pack. The final file opened to reveal an image of a serious-looking asian, built like a tank and six and a half feet tall. Sanchez downed his drink as he looked at the file. “Benjamin Wong, A.K.A. Old Big Ben…”

----

“…Sir, Mr. Wong is standing outside here. He says he wishes to see you.”

The manager looked up at the woman looking in his doorway. “Mr. Wong? What’s he doing here? I thought I fired him two weeks ago.”

“I know that, sir, he says that’s what he wanted to talk to you about,” she said. She looked spooked, like she had seen a ghost of some sort. The manager sighed and waved for her to let him in.

Mr. Wong walked into the room a few moments later and slammed the door behind him, his face displaying a mixture of fury and eagerness. “Ah Mr. Wong, what can I-”

“Don’t Mr. Wong me, you bastard,” Mr. Wong said, striding up to him. “I want my job back. Now.” He slammed his hands on the manager’s desk, a deep-throated growl escaping from his throat.

The manager had to admit, if Mr. Wong was trying to intimidate him, it was working. “Ah… Mr. Wong, you know I can’t do that. Considering why you were let go-”

“That was bullshit and you know it!” Mr. Wong roared, pointing a large finger at the manager. “You give me back my job right now you fucker or I’ll tear your heart out and throw it across the room.”

The manager felt a drop of sweat flow down his neck. “Are you threatening me, Mr. Wong?”

Mr. Wong smirked. “Yeah I’m threatening you. What the fuck are you going to do about it?”

The manager summoned up every ounce of bravery he had. He’d had angry workers before and had dealt with them, he could deal with one more. “Mr. Wong, I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to le-” he was suddenly interrupted when Mr. Wong threw the desk to the side, crashing it against the wall before grabbing the manager by the throat and slamming him against the wall behind him. The manager grabbed the thickly muscled arm, trying to free his throat, to no avail.

“You little shit,” Mr. Wong said, leaning in close. “You stiff me on my paychecks, you treat my work like shit, and then you fire me when I consider reporting you to your superiors. And don’t think I don’t know how you were banging the secretary on the side.” He sniffed the manager’s collar. “You did it this morning, didn’t you? I can smell her on you, you know.”

The manager tried to gasp for air, to say something, but his windpipe felt like it was being crushed. His arms weakly pushed at the man before him, finding himself start to black out, before Mr. Wong threw him to the ground. The manager gasped for air desperately, when he saw Mr. Wong hovering over him. “I am going to enjoy this VERY much, ‘boss’.” He grinned, and then drove his hand straight into the manager’s chest.

The last thing the manager heard before a silent ringing entered his ears, was his secretary’s high-pitched scream. And the last thing he saw before sweet darkness enveloped him, was a terrible monster standing over him, placing his heart into its mouth, his blood dripping from its claws…

----

“…convicted of two counts of first degree murder. Sentenced to life in prison. Incarcerated 2004.” Sanchez shivered as he remembered the photos from the murder scene. Both the manager of the company and his secretary had their hearts torn out, and Benjamin had blood all over his hands and mouth. A worker had called the police as soon as he heard the crash, but it took three shocks from tazers to put the brick of a man down.

Benjamin was one of the biggest men in the prison, but managed to put them all to shame. Everybody feared him and respected him and wanted to be in his Pack once he formed it, but he was very specific in who got in. Nobody knew what he saw in the other four, or why he wouldn’t take other prisoners, but he said he had his reasons. Something about “The Next Evolution of Humanity”.

Sanchez sighed again and downed the last of the vodka. As he did, he glanced at the files one last time, only to get a weird shock. Each of the profile shots had changed, looking like the heads of animals. A rat. A horse. A skunk. A wolf. A white tiger. He shook his head and suddenly they resumed their human appearances. “Ugh, I must’ve drunk more than I thought…” With a groan, he closed the files and put them away, settling himself down to another night at the prison. It was a long day, and he needed the sleep.

User talk:Hawl/The Sexiest Of All Tiger Girls

2011-08-17T18:17:02Z

Chessrook44: Created page with '---- Having just finished reading this story of yours, I gotta say it's not too bad, but it could use some cleaning up. I'd suggest at least fixing a formatting error somewhere …'

----
Having just finished reading this story of yours, I gotta say it's not too bad, but it could use some cleaning up. I'd suggest at least fixing a formatting error somewhere in the middle, as well as taking another look at how the AIM chats are done, along with adding lines or something into the forum posts mentioned. --[[User:Chessrook44|Chessrook44]]

User:Chessrook44

2011-07-02T19:03:53Z

Chessrook44:

So yeah, um... not much to say here, I don't use Wikis much (like, at all) so this'll probably look very newbish and I should stop talking about it like this and GAHENOUGH!!!!

Anyway, not much to say about me, except for the various ideas I have in mind struggling to get onto virtual paper whenever I can find the motivation to do it. Should anything be created, you shall find it posted here. Expect rare updates. Emphasis on rare.

'''Lester's Tales'''

These stories take place in the Paradise setting. Though I only have two complete, I have plans for more in my mind. Heaven only knows if I'll ever get around to them.

[[User:Chessrook44/Unforseen Changes|Episode 1: Unforseen Changes]]

[[User:Chessrook44/Unforseen Reactions|Episode 2: Unforseen Reactions]] *New*

'''Paradise One-shots'''

Stories listed here also take place in the Paradise setting, but are one-shots, separate from Lester's Tales.

[[User:Chessrook44/Incarceration|Incarceration]] *New*<nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>So many stories have been told of the people who suddenly changed and fought against the change, or tolerated it, or learned to deal with it. But what about those who not only embraced it... but USED it for selfish ends?

User:Chessrook44

2011-07-02T19:03:12Z

Chessrook44:

So yeah, um... not much to say here, I don't use Wikis much (like, at all) so this'll probably look very newbish and I should stop talking about it like this and GAHENOUGH!!!!

Anyway, not much to say about me, except for the various ideas I have in mind struggling to get onto virtual paper whenever I can find the motivation to do it. Should anything be created, you shall find it posted here. Expect rare updates. Emphasis on rare.

'''Lester's Tales'''

These stories take place in the Paradise setting. Though I only have two complete, I have plans for more in my mind. Heaven only knows if I'll ever get around to them.

[[User:Chessrook44/Unforseen Changes|Episode 1: Unforseen Changes]]

[[User:Chessrook44/Unforseen Reactions|Episode 2: Unforseen Reactions]] *New*

'''Paradise One-shots'''

Stories listed here also take place in the Paradise setting, but are one-shots, separate from Lester's Tales.

[[User:Chessrook44/Incarceration|Incarceration]] *New*[[User:Chessrook44|Chessrook44]] 19:03, 2 July 2011 (UTC)So many stories have been told of the people who suddenly changed and fought against the change, or tolerated it, or learned to deal with it. But what about those who not only embraced it... but USED it for selfish ends?

User:Chessrook44

2011-07-02T19:02:45Z

Chessrook44:

So yeah, um... not much to say here, I don't use Wikis much (like, at all) so this'll probably look very newbish and I should stop talking about it like this and GAHENOUGH!!!!

Anyway, not much to say about me, except for the various ideas I have in mind struggling to get onto virtual paper whenever I can find the motivation to do it. Should anything be created, you shall find it posted here. Expect rare updates. Emphasis on rare.

'''Lester's Tales'''

These stories take place in the Paradise setting. Though I only have two complete, I have plans for more in my mind. Heaven only knows if I'll ever get around to them.

[[User:Chessrook44/Unforseen Changes|Episode 1: Unforseen Changes]]

[[User:Chessrook44/Unforseen Reactions|Episode 2: Unforseen Reactions]] *New*

'''Paradise One-shots'''

Stories listed here also take place in the Paradise setting, but are one-shots, separate from Lester's Tales.

[[User:Chessrook44/Incarceration|Incarceration]] *New*

So many stories have been told of the people who suddenly changed and fought against the change, or tolerated it, or learned to deal with it. But what about those who not only embraced it... but USED it for selfish ends?

Paradise (Setting)

2011-07-02T18:59:08Z

Chessrook44:

{{Universe|Paradise}}

{{byline|author=Jon Buck
|user=JonBuck}}

A direct link '''[[User:JonBuck/A Kind of Paradise|To the original story.]]'''

=={{separator|f|Stories in Chronological Order}}==

Authors may add links to their stories as they happen in chronological order in story time. For a complete listing of all Paradise stories, since this list may be updated sporadically, see [[:Category:Paradise|the Paradise Category]].

'''2000'''
*[[User:Erastus/On the Outside Looking|On the Outside, Looking...]] ''(Through 2010) ([[User:Erastus|Erastus]])''

'''2001'''
*[[Ranty Raccoon]] ''(Digitalpotato)''

'''2002'''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Made Alone|Made Alone]] ''([[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]])''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Bathing Alone|Bathing Alone]] ''([[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]])''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Not Quite Alone|Not Quite Alone]] ''([[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]])''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Suspected Alone|Suspected Alone]] ''([[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]])''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Revealing Alone|Revealing Alone]] ''([[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]])''

'''2003'''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Convention Building|Convention Building]] ''([[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]])''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Model Building | Model Building]] ''([[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]])''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Change Building | Change Building]] ''([[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]])''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Confession Building | Confession Building]] ''([[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]])''

'''2004'''
*[[User_talk:Enphilistor| Victory Starts Here]] [recovered from google cache] ''(Enphilistor)''

'''2005'''
*[[User:Jetfire/Holes in the Veil| Holes in the Veil]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Robotech_Master/Capsule_Review:_Changed:_The_Unveiling|RPG.net Capsule Review: Changed: The Unveiling]] ''([[User:Robotech_Master|Robotech_Master]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Lifting The Veil| Lifting The Veil]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Poking the Veil| Poking the Veil]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Chessrook44/Unforseen Changes| Unforseen Changes]] ''([[User:Chessrook44|Chessrook44]])''
*[[User:Chessrook44/Unforseen Reactions| Unforseen Reactions]] ''([[User:Chessrook44|Chessrook44]])''
*[[User:Eirik/Stages|Stages]] (Through October 2006) ''([[User:Eirik|Eirik]])''

'''2006'''
*[[User:Jetfire/Film at 2011| Film at 2011]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/GM'O'Fur| GM'O'Fur]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Twisting the Veil| Twisting the Veil]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Silver Fox Tracks|Silver Fox Tracks]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Generations| Generations]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/A Rolling Stone Gathers No Veil|A Rolling Stone Gathers No Veil]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Auld Lang Syne|Auld Lang Syne]] (Extends into 2007) ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Eirik/Reverberations|Reverberations]] ''([[User:Eirik|Eirik]])''
*[[User:Eirik/Bare Hands|Bare Hands]] ''([[User:Eirik|Eirik]])''

'''2007'''
*[[User:Eirik/Treatment|Treatment]] ''([[User:Eirik|Eirik]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/It Bears Investigation|It Bears Investigation]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Gaming Furs|Gaming Furs]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:JonBuck/A Kind of Paradise|A Kind of Paradise]] ''([[User:JonBuck|JonBuck]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Radio No Veil|Radio No Veil]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Six Furries and a Wedding|Six Furries and a Wedding]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:JonBuck/Tall Tales|Tall Tales]] ''([[User:JonBuck|JonBuck]])''
*[[User:Nikon/Changing Perspectives|Changing Perspectives]] ''([[User:Nikon|Nikon]])''
*[[User:Nikon/Back to Reality|Back to Reality]] ''([[User:Nikon|Nikon]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Clearing the Air|Clearing the Air]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Eirik/Waters_So_Cold_and_Deep|Waters So Cold and Deep]] ''([[User:Eirik|Eirik]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Doing Hard Time|Doing Hard Time]] (Extends into 2008) ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[Monkey Business]] ''([[User:Boss Hoss|Boss Hoss]])''
*[[User:Nikon/Coming Home|Coming Home]] (guess based on posting date) ''([[User:Nikon|Nikon]])''

'''2008'''
*[[User:Jetfire/Live_At_Five|Live At Five]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Rising Waters|Rising Waters]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Gulf_Ice|Gulf Ice]] (Prelude in 2001) ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/The_Bear_Facts|The Bear Facts]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Election Fever|Election Fever]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Eirik/Centers of Power|Centers of Power]] ''([[User:Eirik|Eirik]])''
*[[User:JonBuck/Open Secrets|Open Secrets]] ''([[User:JonBuck|JonBuck]])''
*[[User:WolfyDrake95/New_World|New World]] ''([[User:WolfyDrake95|WolfyDrake95]])''
*[[User:WolfyDrake95/To_a_Friend|To a Friend]] ''([[User:WolfyDrake95|WolfyDrake95]])''
*[[User:Chessrook44/Incarceration|Incarceration]] ''([[User:Chessrook44|Chessrook44]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Special Care|Special Care]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/NorBAC|NorBAC]] (begins in June; jumps to September) ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Judge_Judy:_Deagle_vs_Anderson|Judge Judy: Deagle vs Anderson]] (2008 or 2009) ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''

'''2009'''
*[[User:JonBuck/After Hours|After Hours]] ''([[User:JonBuck|JonBuck]])''

'''2010'''
*[[User:JonBuck/Changing America|Changing America]] (work in progress) ''([[User:JonBuck|JonBuck]])''
*[[User:Robotech_Master/See Change: March 20, 2010|See Change: March 20, 2010]] ''([[User:Robotech_Master|Robotech_Master]])''
*[[User:Robotech_Master/Tiffnapped|Tiffnapped]] ''([[User:Robotech_Master|Robotech_Master]])''
*[[User:Robotech_Master/Holding Helena|Holding Helena]] ''([[User:Robotech_Master|Robotech_Master]])''

'''Alternate Future'''
*[[Cascade Failure]]

=={{separator|f|Basics}}==
*The setting is basically indistinguishable from the Real World up until 1987, the year when people first begin to spontaneously transform into furries.
*Exactly one person transformed in Year One ''(i.e.,'' 1987), and the number of furries doubles in late August each year. The initial story in this setting, [[User:JonBuck/A Kind of Paradise|A Kind of Paradise]], is set in Year 21 ''(i.e.,'' 2007), when there are just over one million furries. The next year (2008) will add a million, for a total of two megafurries, and so forth.
*The first furry in 1987 was a vixen, with a tod the next year. Some stereotypes do have a basis in "reality". :)
**The entire world will be furry in 2020.
*Every year it's possible that an already-changed person could change ''again''. With increasing rarity, all less than one percent:
**A species change. ("What the..? I'm a ''wolf'' now? What am I supposed to do with all these hoof picks?")
**A gender change. ("Where do men put this ''thing'' between our legs when we sit down?")
**A combination of both. ("Don't ''even'' call me a bitch! Just show me how to put on this stupid bra!")
**The next year there is about a 25% chance that the person will revert to their original gender/first species. If that doesn't happen, it's fixed. If they change back... there's another 25% chance that you'll bounce back ''again'' the next year. So there's some potential for characters who spend years alternating between species/gender.
*Also distinctive from Winds of Change: ''No superpowers''. Just whatever natural abilities (things like augmented senses, physical strength, ''etc)'' come from being half animal.
*'''The Role Reversal Paradox.'''
**''IF'' the couple has children, pre- or post-Change, no matter what age...
**''IF'' one of the couple has been transgendered...
**''THEN'' it is essentially a sure thing that the partner will TG as well.
**The reason for this is simple. ROB hates paradoxes. If they have children, there ''must'' be a father and a mother. And it ''must'' be the same two people. It doesn't matter if that person divorced and remarried someone else. Or if they're unmarried. One father, one mother. Otherwise, the kids will logically not have come into existence.
**Conversely, if they are married/going out/living together/etc., the same TG 1% dice roll applies to them as everyone else.

'''Important.''' Please ''do not'' write stories that are father ahead in the timeline than those I have written.''

'''Note on Politics'''. As a request, I ask authors not to use major political figures from Real Life. I don't want any political bashing going on here. Characters like Congressman Sandrick are perfectly fine, so feel free to create fictional members of Congress or Members of Parliament. Remember this world is different from ours from 1987 onwards. There are still details I haven't filled in between then and now, and the Butterfly Effect means that there will be some small, some major differences.

{{add|'''Winners of the 2008 Election'''}}
*President: Karen Hutchinson. (Reverse Pres. Obama and his wife, basically)
*VP: Steven Angstrom

===The Transgendered===
Just a few details.
#This is an earlier, generally harmless virus that got into the simulation. ROB dealt with it by the "history editing" as described in the stories.
#It's been around a LOT longer than the Furry Virus.
#Even though it's probably been around for thousands of years, there are far fewer victims than the Furry Virus as of 2009. I imagine the furry virus co-opted this one for the TGed furs.
#As in real life, there are many more male to female victims than the other way around.
#Transgendered victims have little or no support system like furries do. They're generally isolated. And before 2009 couldn't see through the RDF.

===Physiology===

*Furries can still interbreed with one another as if they were all still human. Children most often follow their parents' species, however, they can also follow their grandparents species, or something out of left field.
*Conversely, humans '''cannot''' interbreed with furries, probably due to the RDF.
*There are some physical variations, but not the wide "Degrees" that Winds of Change has. The most obvious differences are hair, feet, and hands. Otherwise, most everyone is about as morphic as seen in common furry art.
**Females most often have hair the same color and similar texture as their fur. Though you do still get the occasional blond.
**Males retain their hair less frequently.
*'''Size Limitations.''' On the suggestion from the Talk page. I'm not going to limit species. However, I will have a minimum/maximum size range:
**7 feet (or 2.1m), max. About 600 lb (272 kg), max.
**4 feet (1.2m). I'll leave the small side open.
*Species are native to a particular continent. So most people in North America will end up whitetail deer, elk, bears, foxes, wolves, etc. Recent immigrants will more likely end up native species to wherever they came from.
**However, this means that someone from Seattle could ''still'' end up a leopard, or a llama, or what-have-you from other continents. I just want to make that clear.
**No mythicals like dragons, griffins, satyrs, vampires, mages, what-have-you. Just furries.
**No birds, reptiles, or other non-mammals.
*'''No Extinct Species.''' No dinosaurs. Sadly, I can't include them. There are so many species that are just too big.
*'''Note on Transsexuals'''. This setting is intended as a mix of wish fulfillment and darker, more realistic consequences. That said, all TS folks get their bodies "corrected". Keep in mind that this won't necessarily make life easier for said character. Conflict generates Plot. And since most of the folks who get their gender switched ''won't'' be TS, there's still plenty of that around.
*Results of major surgeries are translated. Artificial hips, knees and pacemakers still work as needed. Transplant patients will not reject their organs. However, lost limbs will not regenerate and major chronic diseases will not be cured, but may go into a lengthy remission.
*One of the major benefits is a major improvement in health and fitness. ROB can't stop the change, but at least he can give the victims a sort of consolation prize. You may not end up in perfect shape, but it'll be close. A flood of positive endorphins to make the victim feel good about their new bodies doesn't hurt, either (optional). Now, what happens to that state of fitness ''after'' is entirely up to your characters.

===Psychology===
*At this point I'm inclined to have some mitigating effects on the "victims". It's still going to be very, very hard to deal with. This is a major life disruption. And there are no doubt a lot of secluded furs. But suicides aren't as common as you'd think.
*The transgendered furs do have an even rougher time. The double-whammy of species and gender would likely make serious post-change Issues a reality.
**Transgendered furs typically refer to themselves by their initials: BD, DL, etc..
**Some might end up going a little crazy and think they had ''always been'' their new gender, especially after the effects of Tall Tales Con.
*The more adjusted furs have figured out how to find these troubled souls and bring them back into the real world.

=={{separator|f|The Reality Distortion Field (Veil)}}==
*Humans can't see furries for what they are. They still see whatever the person looked like before, even if that person was the opposite gender.
*Some things aren't filtered correctly. Consequently...
**If a TGed man gets pregnant, the filter will change that person's ghost image to female. But she will still appear human to other humans.
**Things like hoof/paw prints, shed fur, shed antlers, clawmarks, animal odors, etc., are not filtered. So if a cougar morph gets in a fight with a normal human and lashes out with his claws, he could cause a hell of a lot of damage.
**Some humans think that there is something up (referred to as "Known" or "Friends"). And some have figured out that the friends who claim to be furry actually ''are'' what they claim to be.
*The RDF sometimes breaks down a little during large gatherings of furries (like at conventions). "Hey, that's the best costume I've ever seen! Is that a prosthetic muzzle?" Memories afterwards will probably remember some really good costumes, and photos will be perceived as such.
**In more extreme cases it will break down entirely. But it would take repeated exposures, or perhaps having a number of furry friends while remaining humans oneself. Like in [[User:Nikon/Changing_Perspectives|Changing Perspectives]].
**Transgendered furs may be perceived by humans as their new gender out of the corner of their eye. And there are likely other circumstances where the human RDF image will realign also. Specific circumstances (such as pregnancy) will be the decisive factor.
**As of 2007, TGed TallTales Con attendees have had a major RDF alteration. Everyone except family, friends, or people who have seen them often enough to really know, will perceive them as their new physical sex. Which is essentially the vast majority of people. This effect will spread to all the other TGed until 2008, when it becomes the norm.
**'''As of 2009''', all human ghosts now reflect their real gender, no matter who is looking.
*Do animals perceive the RDF? Probably not. But the odor of a fur is neither quite human or animal. There are still some common human pheromones, for example. Which is what makes romance between wolf and deer possible. This is a ''good'' thing, since it means that a doe-woman in heat won't be chased down by a normal buck.
*It may start to break down as there grow to be millions of furries in the world (see below).
*Another storytelling idea: The RDF is an ''antiviral measure'' (see The Cause below). When the RDF breaks down, people ''may'' change out-of-phase, since they no longer have that protection. This will make it harder to track down people who change and get them the help they need. This is ''not'' a hard-and-fast rule, but the storytelling device is available. But I '''don't''' want it to become commonplace.

==={{separator|f|Holes in the Veil}}===

As seen in [[User:JonBuck/After Hours|After Hours]], on August 29, 2009 the Veil started coming down.

*First one appeared in Hyannis, MA on August 29. It quickly expanded to (size to be determined) and outed every furry in town. Other holes appeared in and around Chicago. Without exception they appear first where there's been a recent or frequent concentration of furs.
*Holes start small, but will grow depending on how weak the RDF is in the area.
*As the RDF decays, furs will feel like they're wrapped in loose plastic. And there's something of a light show. The air shimmers. The air feels cleaner, fresher.
**The RDF is an extra "rendering layer" of sorts. Since until now all furs had lived with it, they only really notice it was there now that it's been taken away. Leaving a Hole a fur will feel like he or she is wearing clothing a size too small or too large, depending on how much they deviate from the human norm. A really sensitive fur might feel suffocated, as if they were wrapped in plastics. They'll feel irritable and given the right situation, may tear ''new'' Holes (which could make good story fodder).
*They're like soap bubbles in that if they encounter other holes, they'll grow even larger. All of them are still slowly expanding, and may jump to larger sizes at unpredictable intervals.
*ROB will start a controlled shutdown of the RDF over the course of the year. Its replacement will be a Weirdness Censor.
**The world is going furry crazy. But not ''crazy crazy''. Using a cooking analogy, it's like a foamed egg whites getting folded into a souffle or other dish that needs careful mixing, or the recipe falls apart.

*Furs feel much more comfortable with themselves inside the holes. To furs, the RDF feels like restrictive clothing. Doubly so for the TGed furs. Even normal humans feel better. Caveats:
**Normal humans who spend more and more time inside one of these holes run increasing risk of becoming furry at any time of the year ahead.
**Once the RDF is down completely in late 2010, the above may apply to everyone. The numbers are still doubling as below, but the August 17 restriction no longer applies. And as above, a TG can happen before a TF.
**Furries cease being humans in funny costumes. Their animal natures will more easily bob to the surface. This is partly for psychological reasons (don't have to hide any more). Partly due to the pressure from the RDF being gone.

=={{separator|f|The Numbers}}==

Total sequence as follows (all figures approximate):
Year AD Total Furries Total Populace Furries, as %age of total populace
1 1987 1 5,184,212,887 0.000 000 02%
2 1988 2 5,247,179,035 0.000 000 04%
3 1989 4 5,310,909,955 0.000 000 05%
4 1990 8 5,375,414,934 0.000 000 15%
5 1991 16 5,440,703,374 0.000 000 3%
6 1992 32 5,506,784,792 0.000 000 6%
7 1993 64 5,573,668,818 0.000 001 1%
8 1994 128 5,641,365,200 0.000 002%
9 1995 256 5,709,883,806 0.000 004%
10 1996 512 5,779,234,621 0.000 009%
11 1997 1,024 5,849,427,754 0.000 018%
12 1998 2,048 5,920,473,436 0.000 035%
13 1999 4,096 5,992,382,020 0.000 07%
14 2000 8,192 6,065,163,988 0.000 14%
15 2001 16,384 6,138,829,947 0.000 3%
16 2002 32,768 6,213,390,635 0.000 5%
17 2003 65,536 6,288,856,918 0.001%
18 2004 131,072 6,365,239,795 0.002%
19 2005 262,144 6,442,550,400 0.004%
20 2006 524,288 6,520,800,000 0.008%
21 2007 1,048,576 6,600,000,000 0.016%
22 2008 2,097,152 6,680,161,943 0.031%
23 2009 4,194,304 6,761,297,514 0.062%
24 2010 8,388,608 6,843,418,536 0.123%
25 2011 16,777,216 6,926,536,980 0.24%
26 2012 33,554,432 7,010,664,959 0.48%
27 2013 67,108,864 7,095,814,736 0.95%
28 2014 134,217,728 7,181,998,721 1.87%
29 2015 268,435,456 7,269,229,474 3.69%
30 2016 536,870,912 7,357,519,711 7.30%
31 2017 1,073,741,824 7,446,882,298 14.42%
32 2018 2,147,483,648 7,537,330,262 28.49%
33 2019 4,294,967,296 7,628,876,783 56.30%
34 2020 8,589,934,592 7,721,535,206 >100%

At this point stories should take place in '''2001 at the earliest''', up to the current story-time year. The community gets really, really small before then. If you have a story that takes place in this era, submit it to me first. Thank you.

Things should start to get really interesting around 2010. There's enough furs in the world then that niche markets would start to open up. More clothing and products specifically designed for furries start popping up. Also, it will become harder and harder to induct new furs into the group in a healthy manner. Society may start to break down in places.

It will take a concerted effort by those previously changed to keep everything under control...

'''Distribution.''' It's not random, or even. It's an expanding fractal centered on the Chicago area. As far as visualization, I'll leave that vague. But the majority of the first furs were in North America.

From the way these stories are playing out, I'd say that events are unfolding like this:

*'''1987-2002''': "Alone" period. Isolation between furries, with only a few very small groups, most of them thinking they're all alone. Best exemplified by [[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat's]] stories. Nobody knows what's going on.
*'''2002-2008''': Forming Communities. There's now enough furs to start encountering each other regularly. Conventions start up. Anthro imagery (in movies, TV shows, and other media) start to show up more frequently. Information getting put together indicates an ominous trend. The whole world will eventually go furry.
*'''2008-?''': Events unfolding in [[User:JonBuck/Open Secrets|Open Secrets]] will nail down this theme. {{add|From here for the next few years, a third to nearly a half of the new Changed will be Known/Friends or family members. People who can see through the Veil easily.}}

===Important Events===
This section will be for events of note that will be important to the overall storytelling. Authors feel free to note important events in your works that could impact the setting as a whole here.

'''2007'''
*First instances of total, permanent [[User:Nikon/Changing Perspectives|RDF breakdown]]. Incidents isolated.
*First appearance of anthro dolphins. The RDF with these people is a very strained affair. The longer they stay around humans, the more likely it'll fail. Perhaps it realigns the image as a normal dolphin in the water, and a human on land.
*'''Added 2/24.''' Transgendered furs at [[User:JonBuck/Tall Tales|Tall Tales Con]] now appear as their new physical gender to anyone but close friends and family. The RDF is even actively changing identification. Active records like passports and driver's licenses, medical records are all altered to reflect this. Even a pre-Change photo ID will show the new human face, which will be a shock to the TGed fur. This effect is slowly spreading to other TGed furs, see [[User:Jetfire/Doing Hard Time|Doing Hard Time]].
*A number of pressing environmental problems relax slightly. While these solutions will solve some problems, they will cause others, especially in the short term.
**The recovery of the major world fisheries detected in the mid-90s continues apace.
**Major discoveries in energy include massive oilfields in various stable First World nations: US, Canada, UK, Norway, etc..
**Scientists observe CO2 levels stabilizing for currently unknown reasons.
**Third World experiences boosts in food production from improved farming practices and soil conditions.
**New renewable energy discoveries, new batteries, a bacterial process for making gasoline and diesel from municipal wastewater.
*With all these new furs, there are now enough singles to start pairing up. The lingering worries about fertility and children will be answered next year...

'''2008'''
*Fallout from Tall Tales Con continues. All newbie and furry gatherings the next year will be much, much smaller, informal.
*Although there were a few before this year, this is the first year a large number of furry babies will be born.
*A Changed rabbit appears as ''Playboy'''s September Playmate of the Month (though only other Changed/Changed-sensitive know it until later).

'''2009'''
*This Change Day will be different from the others. Instead of all happening in the same moment, the new furs will happen in fits and starts throughout the day. Some might change in the early morning, others late that night. The trend will continue over the next few years.
**Another wrinkle. If there's a TG, they don't have to happen at the same time. So some poor fellow who becomes a clouded leopard in the morning (or a woman) will get hit again sometime later.
* The shoe field died in 2008. Now the Veil no longer hides clothing modifications. For some furs this might be a Veil-breaker. We will see.
*Since [[User:JonBuck/Open Secrets|Open Secrets]], the secret is functionally out, though a sort of [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WeirdnessCensor Weirdness Censor] is in place, possibly due to widespread denial. Furry imagery started to dominate the media after the first of the year, especially on medical dramas and "what if" shows on National Geographic, Discovery Channel, even the Food Network. Mostly done with CGI, a few shows used furry actors and cameras able to see through the Veil. More to be revealed in [[User:JonBuck/After Hours|After Hours]].
* '''The Shutdown''', August 17-25. With a major Sleeping Sickness outbreak, much of the world economy shut down for a little over a week, with only essential services (energy, food transport, etc.) kept running. Similar to what Mexico did during the Swine Flu outbreak. Later they are accused of overreacting, as Sleeping Sickness seems to leave a minuscule number of deaths, and the victims healthier than before they contracted it.

'''2010'''
*Tiffany Tanner appears as the first Changed to play a Changed in a recurring role on daytime television. With the aid of a special lens, Tiffany's character "Felice Hunter" on ''One Life to Live'' dramatizes the plight of Changed forced to keep secrets from family and friends. Her stint on the show is briefly interrupted when she is kidnapped for several weeks, after which she again makes headlines as one of "Melton's Eleven," eleven furres who had been kidnapped for the private amusement of a twisted, reclusive millionaire (who vanished shortly before they escaped).

=={{separator|f|The Cause}}==

So, why is this happening? What's causing it? A nanotech virus? Microscopic magic pixies? The return of magic? The wrath of God? What?

The answer is contained in '''[[User:JonBuck/Tall Tales|Tall Tales]]'''.

However, the idea is this. Ever since I read [http://www.accelerando.org/ ''Accelerando''] By Charles Stross, I've been enamored with the idea of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity technological Singularity]. So I've been looking for a way to use it in my fiction at one point. This setting provides the answer to that desire. ''Accelerando'' is available for free on the web.

Our universe--or perhaps just our planet, I haven't decided yet--and all the people in it, are basically a simulation. This doesn't make the characters in these stories any less real than you our I. Mathematics forms the basis of the universe, after all. The people are as sentient as you or I. This makes the setting rather Matrix-like, without the human bodies being used as "batteries". We're all more like Agent Smith.

I refer to this as a "furry virus". It comes from outside the post-Singularity brain, and is slightly more advanced than "ours". What's happening is this bit of malicious code (sentient, no less, but on a level far beyond our ability to comprehend it) is messing up the simulated world we reside in. Why? I dunno. One of those inscrutable things. The RDF is an antiviral measure to contain the damage and allow the society within to adapt. This is also why so far, furry species are limited to mammals. As the numbers of furs increase, that ''will'' change. I have yet to decide just when.

Why not just scrap the whole thing and restore from backup? There are no backups because the simulated people are nevertheless living beings. And they can't just be wiped out.

I hope that explanation isn't too confusing. Please let me know on the '''[[Talk:Paradise (Setting)|Talk Page]]''' if you have questions.

=={{separator|f|Notes on Avatars}}==
So far, the convention for avatars in this setting is for writers to use the first initials of first and last names. However, I wanted to note that my intent here is to give the writer more freedom than to base these characters on yourself. I've changed a lot of details about Jerome, for instance. If you want to put your avatar--if you decide to use one--into this setting, go crazy. Give them a challenge (worse job, emotional trouble). Or make them better off and have the change cause a lot of trouble with work/family/whatever. What I'm trying to say here is, don't feel you have to be directly limited by your present or past self. ''Have fun.''

=={{separator|f|Important Cast}}==

'''[[Paradise Cast List]]'''

Since this is a wiki, that means everyone can edit it. Authors who want to put names and short bios of the characters in their stories, just in case someone else wants to use them for a cameo. With the characters, please list the stories that they appear in. Please put your cast members on the linked cast page. Thank you.

[[Category:Paradise]]

Paradise (Setting)

2011-07-02T18:58:31Z

Chessrook44:

{{Universe|Paradise}}

{{byline|author=Jon Buck
|user=JonBuck}}

A direct link '''[[User:JonBuck/A Kind of Paradise|To the original story.]]'''

=={{separator|f|Stories in Chronological Order}}==

Authors may add links to their stories as they happen in chronological order in story time. For a complete listing of all Paradise stories, since this list may be updated sporadically, see [[:Category:Paradise|the Paradise Category]].

'''2000'''
*[[User:Erastus/On the Outside Looking|On the Outside, Looking...]] ''(Through 2010) ([[User:Erastus|Erastus]])''

'''2001'''
*[[Ranty Raccoon]] ''(Digitalpotato)''

'''2002'''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Made Alone|Made Alone]] ''([[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]])''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Bathing Alone|Bathing Alone]] ''([[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]])''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Not Quite Alone|Not Quite Alone]] ''([[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]])''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Suspected Alone|Suspected Alone]] ''([[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]])''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Revealing Alone|Revealing Alone]] ''([[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]])''

'''2003'''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Convention Building|Convention Building]] ''([[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]])''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Model Building | Model Building]] ''([[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]])''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Change Building | Change Building]] ''([[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]])''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Confession Building | Confession Building]] ''([[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]])''

'''2004'''
*[[User_talk:Enphilistor| Victory Starts Here]] [recovered from google cache] ''(Enphilistor)''

'''2005'''
*[[User:Jetfire/Holes in the Veil| Holes in the Veil]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Robotech_Master/Capsule_Review:_Changed:_The_Unveiling|RPG.net Capsule Review: Changed: The Unveiling]] ''([[User:Robotech_Master|Robotech_Master]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Lifting The Veil| Lifting The Veil]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Poking the Veil| Poking the Veil]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Chessrook44/Unforseen Changes| Unforseen Changes]] ''([[User:Chessrook44|Chessrook44]])''
*[[User:Chessrook44/Unforseen Reactions|Episode 2: Unforseen Reactions]] ''([[User:Chessrook44|Chessrook44]])''
*[[User:Eirik/Stages|Stages]] (Through October 2006) ''([[User:Eirik|Eirik]])''

'''2006'''
*[[User:Jetfire/Film at 2011| Film at 2011]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/GM'O'Fur| GM'O'Fur]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Twisting the Veil| Twisting the Veil]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Silver Fox Tracks|Silver Fox Tracks]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Generations| Generations]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/A Rolling Stone Gathers No Veil|A Rolling Stone Gathers No Veil]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Auld Lang Syne|Auld Lang Syne]] (Extends into 2007) ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Eirik/Reverberations|Reverberations]] ''([[User:Eirik|Eirik]])''
*[[User:Eirik/Bare Hands|Bare Hands]] ''([[User:Eirik|Eirik]])''

'''2007'''
*[[User:Eirik/Treatment|Treatment]] ''([[User:Eirik|Eirik]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/It Bears Investigation|It Bears Investigation]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Gaming Furs|Gaming Furs]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:JonBuck/A Kind of Paradise|A Kind of Paradise]] ''([[User:JonBuck|JonBuck]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Radio No Veil|Radio No Veil]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Six Furries and a Wedding|Six Furries and a Wedding]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:JonBuck/Tall Tales|Tall Tales]] ''([[User:JonBuck|JonBuck]])''
*[[User:Nikon/Changing Perspectives|Changing Perspectives]] ''([[User:Nikon|Nikon]])''
*[[User:Nikon/Back to Reality|Back to Reality]] ''([[User:Nikon|Nikon]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Clearing the Air|Clearing the Air]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Eirik/Waters_So_Cold_and_Deep|Waters So Cold and Deep]] ''([[User:Eirik|Eirik]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Doing Hard Time|Doing Hard Time]] (Extends into 2008) ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[Monkey Business]] ''([[User:Boss Hoss|Boss Hoss]])''
*[[User:Nikon/Coming Home|Coming Home]] (guess based on posting date) ''([[User:Nikon|Nikon]])''

'''2008'''
*[[User:Jetfire/Live_At_Five|Live At Five]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Rising Waters|Rising Waters]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Gulf_Ice|Gulf Ice]] (Prelude in 2001) ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/The_Bear_Facts|The Bear Facts]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Election Fever|Election Fever]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Eirik/Centers of Power|Centers of Power]] ''([[User:Eirik|Eirik]])''
*[[User:JonBuck/Open Secrets|Open Secrets]] ''([[User:JonBuck|JonBuck]])''
*[[User:WolfyDrake95/New_World|New World]] ''([[User:WolfyDrake95|WolfyDrake95]])''
*[[User:WolfyDrake95/To_a_Friend|To a Friend]] ''([[User:WolfyDrake95|WolfyDrake95]])''
*[[User:Chessrook44/Incarceration|Incarceration]] ''([[User:Chessrook44|Chessrook44]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Special Care|Special Care]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/NorBAC|NorBAC]] (begins in June; jumps to September) ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Judge_Judy:_Deagle_vs_Anderson|Judge Judy: Deagle vs Anderson]] (2008 or 2009) ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''

'''2009'''
*[[User:JonBuck/After Hours|After Hours]] ''([[User:JonBuck|JonBuck]])''

'''2010'''
*[[User:JonBuck/Changing America|Changing America]] (work in progress) ''([[User:JonBuck|JonBuck]])''
*[[User:Robotech_Master/See Change: March 20, 2010|See Change: March 20, 2010]] ''([[User:Robotech_Master|Robotech_Master]])''
*[[User:Robotech_Master/Tiffnapped|Tiffnapped]] ''([[User:Robotech_Master|Robotech_Master]])''
*[[User:Robotech_Master/Holding Helena|Holding Helena]] ''([[User:Robotech_Master|Robotech_Master]])''

'''Alternate Future'''
*[[Cascade Failure]]

=={{separator|f|Basics}}==
*The setting is basically indistinguishable from the Real World up until 1987, the year when people first begin to spontaneously transform into furries.
*Exactly one person transformed in Year One ''(i.e.,'' 1987), and the number of furries doubles in late August each year. The initial story in this setting, [[User:JonBuck/A Kind of Paradise|A Kind of Paradise]], is set in Year 21 ''(i.e.,'' 2007), when there are just over one million furries. The next year (2008) will add a million, for a total of two megafurries, and so forth.
*The first furry in 1987 was a vixen, with a tod the next year. Some stereotypes do have a basis in "reality". :)
**The entire world will be furry in 2020.
*Every year it's possible that an already-changed person could change ''again''. With increasing rarity, all less than one percent:
**A species change. ("What the..? I'm a ''wolf'' now? What am I supposed to do with all these hoof picks?")
**A gender change. ("Where do men put this ''thing'' between our legs when we sit down?")
**A combination of both. ("Don't ''even'' call me a bitch! Just show me how to put on this stupid bra!")
**The next year there is about a 25% chance that the person will revert to their original gender/first species. If that doesn't happen, it's fixed. If they change back... there's another 25% chance that you'll bounce back ''again'' the next year. So there's some potential for characters who spend years alternating between species/gender.
*Also distinctive from Winds of Change: ''No superpowers''. Just whatever natural abilities (things like augmented senses, physical strength, ''etc)'' come from being half animal.
*'''The Role Reversal Paradox.'''
**''IF'' the couple has children, pre- or post-Change, no matter what age...
**''IF'' one of the couple has been transgendered...
**''THEN'' it is essentially a sure thing that the partner will TG as well.
**The reason for this is simple. ROB hates paradoxes. If they have children, there ''must'' be a father and a mother. And it ''must'' be the same two people. It doesn't matter if that person divorced and remarried someone else. Or if they're unmarried. One father, one mother. Otherwise, the kids will logically not have come into existence.
**Conversely, if they are married/going out/living together/etc., the same TG 1% dice roll applies to them as everyone else.

'''Important.''' Please ''do not'' write stories that are father ahead in the timeline than those I have written.''

'''Note on Politics'''. As a request, I ask authors not to use major political figures from Real Life. I don't want any political bashing going on here. Characters like Congressman Sandrick are perfectly fine, so feel free to create fictional members of Congress or Members of Parliament. Remember this world is different from ours from 1987 onwards. There are still details I haven't filled in between then and now, and the Butterfly Effect means that there will be some small, some major differences.

{{add|'''Winners of the 2008 Election'''}}
*President: Karen Hutchinson. (Reverse Pres. Obama and his wife, basically)
*VP: Steven Angstrom

===The Transgendered===
Just a few details.
#This is an earlier, generally harmless virus that got into the simulation. ROB dealt with it by the "history editing" as described in the stories.
#It's been around a LOT longer than the Furry Virus.
#Even though it's probably been around for thousands of years, there are far fewer victims than the Furry Virus as of 2009. I imagine the furry virus co-opted this one for the TGed furs.
#As in real life, there are many more male to female victims than the other way around.
#Transgendered victims have little or no support system like furries do. They're generally isolated. And before 2009 couldn't see through the RDF.

===Physiology===

*Furries can still interbreed with one another as if they were all still human. Children most often follow their parents' species, however, they can also follow their grandparents species, or something out of left field.
*Conversely, humans '''cannot''' interbreed with furries, probably due to the RDF.
*There are some physical variations, but not the wide "Degrees" that Winds of Change has. The most obvious differences are hair, feet, and hands. Otherwise, most everyone is about as morphic as seen in common furry art.
**Females most often have hair the same color and similar texture as their fur. Though you do still get the occasional blond.
**Males retain their hair less frequently.
*'''Size Limitations.''' On the suggestion from the Talk page. I'm not going to limit species. However, I will have a minimum/maximum size range:
**7 feet (or 2.1m), max. About 600 lb (272 kg), max.
**4 feet (1.2m). I'll leave the small side open.
*Species are native to a particular continent. So most people in North America will end up whitetail deer, elk, bears, foxes, wolves, etc. Recent immigrants will more likely end up native species to wherever they came from.
**However, this means that someone from Seattle could ''still'' end up a leopard, or a llama, or what-have-you from other continents. I just want to make that clear.
**No mythicals like dragons, griffins, satyrs, vampires, mages, what-have-you. Just furries.
**No birds, reptiles, or other non-mammals.
*'''No Extinct Species.''' No dinosaurs. Sadly, I can't include them. There are so many species that are just too big.
*'''Note on Transsexuals'''. This setting is intended as a mix of wish fulfillment and darker, more realistic consequences. That said, all TS folks get their bodies "corrected". Keep in mind that this won't necessarily make life easier for said character. Conflict generates Plot. And since most of the folks who get their gender switched ''won't'' be TS, there's still plenty of that around.
*Results of major surgeries are translated. Artificial hips, knees and pacemakers still work as needed. Transplant patients will not reject their organs. However, lost limbs will not regenerate and major chronic diseases will not be cured, but may go into a lengthy remission.
*One of the major benefits is a major improvement in health and fitness. ROB can't stop the change, but at least he can give the victims a sort of consolation prize. You may not end up in perfect shape, but it'll be close. A flood of positive endorphins to make the victim feel good about their new bodies doesn't hurt, either (optional). Now, what happens to that state of fitness ''after'' is entirely up to your characters.

===Psychology===
*At this point I'm inclined to have some mitigating effects on the "victims". It's still going to be very, very hard to deal with. This is a major life disruption. And there are no doubt a lot of secluded furs. But suicides aren't as common as you'd think.
*The transgendered furs do have an even rougher time. The double-whammy of species and gender would likely make serious post-change Issues a reality.
**Transgendered furs typically refer to themselves by their initials: BD, DL, etc..
**Some might end up going a little crazy and think they had ''always been'' their new gender, especially after the effects of Tall Tales Con.
*The more adjusted furs have figured out how to find these troubled souls and bring them back into the real world.

=={{separator|f|The Reality Distortion Field (Veil)}}==
*Humans can't see furries for what they are. They still see whatever the person looked like before, even if that person was the opposite gender.
*Some things aren't filtered correctly. Consequently...
**If a TGed man gets pregnant, the filter will change that person's ghost image to female. But she will still appear human to other humans.
**Things like hoof/paw prints, shed fur, shed antlers, clawmarks, animal odors, etc., are not filtered. So if a cougar morph gets in a fight with a normal human and lashes out with his claws, he could cause a hell of a lot of damage.
**Some humans think that there is something up (referred to as "Known" or "Friends"). And some have figured out that the friends who claim to be furry actually ''are'' what they claim to be.
*The RDF sometimes breaks down a little during large gatherings of furries (like at conventions). "Hey, that's the best costume I've ever seen! Is that a prosthetic muzzle?" Memories afterwards will probably remember some really good costumes, and photos will be perceived as such.
**In more extreme cases it will break down entirely. But it would take repeated exposures, or perhaps having a number of furry friends while remaining humans oneself. Like in [[User:Nikon/Changing_Perspectives|Changing Perspectives]].
**Transgendered furs may be perceived by humans as their new gender out of the corner of their eye. And there are likely other circumstances where the human RDF image will realign also. Specific circumstances (such as pregnancy) will be the decisive factor.
**As of 2007, TGed TallTales Con attendees have had a major RDF alteration. Everyone except family, friends, or people who have seen them often enough to really know, will perceive them as their new physical sex. Which is essentially the vast majority of people. This effect will spread to all the other TGed until 2008, when it becomes the norm.
**'''As of 2009''', all human ghosts now reflect their real gender, no matter who is looking.
*Do animals perceive the RDF? Probably not. But the odor of a fur is neither quite human or animal. There are still some common human pheromones, for example. Which is what makes romance between wolf and deer possible. This is a ''good'' thing, since it means that a doe-woman in heat won't be chased down by a normal buck.
*It may start to break down as there grow to be millions of furries in the world (see below).
*Another storytelling idea: The RDF is an ''antiviral measure'' (see The Cause below). When the RDF breaks down, people ''may'' change out-of-phase, since they no longer have that protection. This will make it harder to track down people who change and get them the help they need. This is ''not'' a hard-and-fast rule, but the storytelling device is available. But I '''don't''' want it to become commonplace.

==={{separator|f|Holes in the Veil}}===

As seen in [[User:JonBuck/After Hours|After Hours]], on August 29, 2009 the Veil started coming down.

*First one appeared in Hyannis, MA on August 29. It quickly expanded to (size to be determined) and outed every furry in town. Other holes appeared in and around Chicago. Without exception they appear first where there's been a recent or frequent concentration of furs.
*Holes start small, but will grow depending on how weak the RDF is in the area.
*As the RDF decays, furs will feel like they're wrapped in loose plastic. And there's something of a light show. The air shimmers. The air feels cleaner, fresher.
**The RDF is an extra "rendering layer" of sorts. Since until now all furs had lived with it, they only really notice it was there now that it's been taken away. Leaving a Hole a fur will feel like he or she is wearing clothing a size too small or too large, depending on how much they deviate from the human norm. A really sensitive fur might feel suffocated, as if they were wrapped in plastics. They'll feel irritable and given the right situation, may tear ''new'' Holes (which could make good story fodder).
*They're like soap bubbles in that if they encounter other holes, they'll grow even larger. All of them are still slowly expanding, and may jump to larger sizes at unpredictable intervals.
*ROB will start a controlled shutdown of the RDF over the course of the year. Its replacement will be a Weirdness Censor.
**The world is going furry crazy. But not ''crazy crazy''. Using a cooking analogy, it's like a foamed egg whites getting folded into a souffle or other dish that needs careful mixing, or the recipe falls apart.

*Furs feel much more comfortable with themselves inside the holes. To furs, the RDF feels like restrictive clothing. Doubly so for the TGed furs. Even normal humans feel better. Caveats:
**Normal humans who spend more and more time inside one of these holes run increasing risk of becoming furry at any time of the year ahead.
**Once the RDF is down completely in late 2010, the above may apply to everyone. The numbers are still doubling as below, but the August 17 restriction no longer applies. And as above, a TG can happen before a TF.
**Furries cease being humans in funny costumes. Their animal natures will more easily bob to the surface. This is partly for psychological reasons (don't have to hide any more). Partly due to the pressure from the RDF being gone.

=={{separator|f|The Numbers}}==

Total sequence as follows (all figures approximate):
Year AD Total Furries Total Populace Furries, as %age of total populace
1 1987 1 5,184,212,887 0.000 000 02%
2 1988 2 5,247,179,035 0.000 000 04%
3 1989 4 5,310,909,955 0.000 000 05%
4 1990 8 5,375,414,934 0.000 000 15%
5 1991 16 5,440,703,374 0.000 000 3%
6 1992 32 5,506,784,792 0.000 000 6%
7 1993 64 5,573,668,818 0.000 001 1%
8 1994 128 5,641,365,200 0.000 002%
9 1995 256 5,709,883,806 0.000 004%
10 1996 512 5,779,234,621 0.000 009%
11 1997 1,024 5,849,427,754 0.000 018%
12 1998 2,048 5,920,473,436 0.000 035%
13 1999 4,096 5,992,382,020 0.000 07%
14 2000 8,192 6,065,163,988 0.000 14%
15 2001 16,384 6,138,829,947 0.000 3%
16 2002 32,768 6,213,390,635 0.000 5%
17 2003 65,536 6,288,856,918 0.001%
18 2004 131,072 6,365,239,795 0.002%
19 2005 262,144 6,442,550,400 0.004%
20 2006 524,288 6,520,800,000 0.008%
21 2007 1,048,576 6,600,000,000 0.016%
22 2008 2,097,152 6,680,161,943 0.031%
23 2009 4,194,304 6,761,297,514 0.062%
24 2010 8,388,608 6,843,418,536 0.123%
25 2011 16,777,216 6,926,536,980 0.24%
26 2012 33,554,432 7,010,664,959 0.48%
27 2013 67,108,864 7,095,814,736 0.95%
28 2014 134,217,728 7,181,998,721 1.87%
29 2015 268,435,456 7,269,229,474 3.69%
30 2016 536,870,912 7,357,519,711 7.30%
31 2017 1,073,741,824 7,446,882,298 14.42%
32 2018 2,147,483,648 7,537,330,262 28.49%
33 2019 4,294,967,296 7,628,876,783 56.30%
34 2020 8,589,934,592 7,721,535,206 >100%

At this point stories should take place in '''2001 at the earliest''', up to the current story-time year. The community gets really, really small before then. If you have a story that takes place in this era, submit it to me first. Thank you.

Things should start to get really interesting around 2010. There's enough furs in the world then that niche markets would start to open up. More clothing and products specifically designed for furries start popping up. Also, it will become harder and harder to induct new furs into the group in a healthy manner. Society may start to break down in places.

It will take a concerted effort by those previously changed to keep everything under control...

'''Distribution.''' It's not random, or even. It's an expanding fractal centered on the Chicago area. As far as visualization, I'll leave that vague. But the majority of the first furs were in North America.

From the way these stories are playing out, I'd say that events are unfolding like this:

*'''1987-2002''': "Alone" period. Isolation between furries, with only a few very small groups, most of them thinking they're all alone. Best exemplified by [[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat's]] stories. Nobody knows what's going on.
*'''2002-2008''': Forming Communities. There's now enough furs to start encountering each other regularly. Conventions start up. Anthro imagery (in movies, TV shows, and other media) start to show up more frequently. Information getting put together indicates an ominous trend. The whole world will eventually go furry.
*'''2008-?''': Events unfolding in [[User:JonBuck/Open Secrets|Open Secrets]] will nail down this theme. {{add|From here for the next few years, a third to nearly a half of the new Changed will be Known/Friends or family members. People who can see through the Veil easily.}}

===Important Events===
This section will be for events of note that will be important to the overall storytelling. Authors feel free to note important events in your works that could impact the setting as a whole here.

'''2007'''
*First instances of total, permanent [[User:Nikon/Changing Perspectives|RDF breakdown]]. Incidents isolated.
*First appearance of anthro dolphins. The RDF with these people is a very strained affair. The longer they stay around humans, the more likely it'll fail. Perhaps it realigns the image as a normal dolphin in the water, and a human on land.
*'''Added 2/24.''' Transgendered furs at [[User:JonBuck/Tall Tales|Tall Tales Con]] now appear as their new physical gender to anyone but close friends and family. The RDF is even actively changing identification. Active records like passports and driver's licenses, medical records are all altered to reflect this. Even a pre-Change photo ID will show the new human face, which will be a shock to the TGed fur. This effect is slowly spreading to other TGed furs, see [[User:Jetfire/Doing Hard Time|Doing Hard Time]].
*A number of pressing environmental problems relax slightly. While these solutions will solve some problems, they will cause others, especially in the short term.
**The recovery of the major world fisheries detected in the mid-90s continues apace.
**Major discoveries in energy include massive oilfields in various stable First World nations: US, Canada, UK, Norway, etc..
**Scientists observe CO2 levels stabilizing for currently unknown reasons.
**Third World experiences boosts in food production from improved farming practices and soil conditions.
**New renewable energy discoveries, new batteries, a bacterial process for making gasoline and diesel from municipal wastewater.
*With all these new furs, there are now enough singles to start pairing up. The lingering worries about fertility and children will be answered next year...

'''2008'''
*Fallout from Tall Tales Con continues. All newbie and furry gatherings the next year will be much, much smaller, informal.
*Although there were a few before this year, this is the first year a large number of furry babies will be born.
*A Changed rabbit appears as ''Playboy'''s September Playmate of the Month (though only other Changed/Changed-sensitive know it until later).

'''2009'''
*This Change Day will be different from the others. Instead of all happening in the same moment, the new furs will happen in fits and starts throughout the day. Some might change in the early morning, others late that night. The trend will continue over the next few years.
**Another wrinkle. If there's a TG, they don't have to happen at the same time. So some poor fellow who becomes a clouded leopard in the morning (or a woman) will get hit again sometime later.
* The shoe field died in 2008. Now the Veil no longer hides clothing modifications. For some furs this might be a Veil-breaker. We will see.
*Since [[User:JonBuck/Open Secrets|Open Secrets]], the secret is functionally out, though a sort of [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WeirdnessCensor Weirdness Censor] is in place, possibly due to widespread denial. Furry imagery started to dominate the media after the first of the year, especially on medical dramas and "what if" shows on National Geographic, Discovery Channel, even the Food Network. Mostly done with CGI, a few shows used furry actors and cameras able to see through the Veil. More to be revealed in [[User:JonBuck/After Hours|After Hours]].
* '''The Shutdown''', August 17-25. With a major Sleeping Sickness outbreak, much of the world economy shut down for a little over a week, with only essential services (energy, food transport, etc.) kept running. Similar to what Mexico did during the Swine Flu outbreak. Later they are accused of overreacting, as Sleeping Sickness seems to leave a minuscule number of deaths, and the victims healthier than before they contracted it.

'''2010'''
*Tiffany Tanner appears as the first Changed to play a Changed in a recurring role on daytime television. With the aid of a special lens, Tiffany's character "Felice Hunter" on ''One Life to Live'' dramatizes the plight of Changed forced to keep secrets from family and friends. Her stint on the show is briefly interrupted when she is kidnapped for several weeks, after which she again makes headlines as one of "Melton's Eleven," eleven furres who had been kidnapped for the private amusement of a twisted, reclusive millionaire (who vanished shortly before they escaped).

=={{separator|f|The Cause}}==

So, why is this happening? What's causing it? A nanotech virus? Microscopic magic pixies? The return of magic? The wrath of God? What?

The answer is contained in '''[[User:JonBuck/Tall Tales|Tall Tales]]'''.

However, the idea is this. Ever since I read [http://www.accelerando.org/ ''Accelerando''] By Charles Stross, I've been enamored with the idea of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity technological Singularity]. So I've been looking for a way to use it in my fiction at one point. This setting provides the answer to that desire. ''Accelerando'' is available for free on the web.

Our universe--or perhaps just our planet, I haven't decided yet--and all the people in it, are basically a simulation. This doesn't make the characters in these stories any less real than you our I. Mathematics forms the basis of the universe, after all. The people are as sentient as you or I. This makes the setting rather Matrix-like, without the human bodies being used as "batteries". We're all more like Agent Smith.

I refer to this as a "furry virus". It comes from outside the post-Singularity brain, and is slightly more advanced than "ours". What's happening is this bit of malicious code (sentient, no less, but on a level far beyond our ability to comprehend it) is messing up the simulated world we reside in. Why? I dunno. One of those inscrutable things. The RDF is an antiviral measure to contain the damage and allow the society within to adapt. This is also why so far, furry species are limited to mammals. As the numbers of furs increase, that ''will'' change. I have yet to decide just when.

Why not just scrap the whole thing and restore from backup? There are no backups because the simulated people are nevertheless living beings. And they can't just be wiped out.

I hope that explanation isn't too confusing. Please let me know on the '''[[Talk:Paradise (Setting)|Talk Page]]''' if you have questions.

=={{separator|f|Notes on Avatars}}==
So far, the convention for avatars in this setting is for writers to use the first initials of first and last names. However, I wanted to note that my intent here is to give the writer more freedom than to base these characters on yourself. I've changed a lot of details about Jerome, for instance. If you want to put your avatar--if you decide to use one--into this setting, go crazy. Give them a challenge (worse job, emotional trouble). Or make them better off and have the change cause a lot of trouble with work/family/whatever. What I'm trying to say here is, don't feel you have to be directly limited by your present or past self. ''Have fun.''

=={{separator|f|Important Cast}}==

'''[[Paradise Cast List]]'''

Since this is a wiki, that means everyone can edit it. Authors who want to put names and short bios of the characters in their stories, just in case someone else wants to use them for a cameo. With the characters, please list the stories that they appear in. Please put your cast members on the linked cast page. Thank you.

[[Category:Paradise]]

User:Chessrook44/Incarceration

2011-07-02T18:55:44Z

Chessrook44: Created page with '== Incarceration== Warden Sanchez sat in his office, a bottle of vodka sitting on his desk as he glanced over the folders before him. There had been a riot earlier that day, b…'

== Incarceration==

Warden Sanchez sat in his office, a bottle of vodka sitting on his desk as he glanced over the folders before him. There had been a riot earlier that day, but it had been quelled and he was looking over those involved now. It wasn’t quite certain what had started the riot, but it had ended up with several people sent to the infirmary with strange cuts and lacerations.

More curious, however, was five of the prisoners involved. They had over their time incarcerated formed their own small gang known as The Pack. He’d read over their files and the information regarding their capture and stories, but there were still several parts that didn’t quite make sense in some cases. Why did the strangest of the lot have to form their own gang?

Taking a shot of vodka from the bottle he picked up the first folder and looked over the picture. It showed a short man in his late thirties, eyes barely looking at the camera. It had taken them several tries to get a good enough picture with how jumpy he was. “James R. Palenko, A.K.A. Jimmy the Rat…”

----

“There! Hey you! Stop!”

The officer yelled out at a figure he saw dash past a streetlight with a large bag over his shoulder. He was on patrol that night when he heard a call about a break in at a nearby house. He was on his way there when he saw the figure leaping down the street, clearly in a hurry.

Quickly, he turned on the sirens and chased after the figure, lights catching him now and then as he caught up. It wasn’t long before the thief (it had to be the thief, who else would run from a cop?) turned and ducked into a nearby alley. Cursing, the officer leapt out of his car and ran after him. “Halt! Police!”

The chase ran through the alleys of the buildings, and the officer was thankful for all the trips to the gym he made, climbing over the occasional fence and leaping around dumpsters. Whoever this person was, they were in good shape. After a long chase it seemed he lost him, running up to find an empty street, no sign of the thief anywhere.

He stood in the middle of the street, listening, the sounds of traffic in the distance. ''Damn,'' he thought. H''e got away. Chief’s gonna have my gun for-''

He froze. He heard something, almost like a squeak of a rat, coming from a nearby dumpster. Carefully, he stepped towards it, pulling out his gun and listening. There was rummaging, followed by the sound of a faint curse. “Come out of there!” he cried out, pulling up his gun. “I know you’re in-”

What came next happened so fast he later wondered if he was seeing things clearly. Some… THING leapt out of the garbage bin, looking almost like some kind of monster. It tried to run down the street, but in his shock the officer fired, the creature collapsing to the ground. When the officer approached it, he found the short figure lying on the ground, blood pooling from the bullet wound in his leg. The bag was lying next to him, opened and with silverware and china spilling out of it onto the street.

The officer lifted up his radio. “Officer Kendall here… I got the thief on Wilson Boulevard. Gave me quite a chase too…”

----

“…found guilty of breaking and entering and attempted theft. Sentenced to five years. Incarcerated 2007.” Sanchez looked down at the notes again. James had been shot in the leg, but recovered fairly quickly. In the prison he tended to stay out of the way, but listened a lot. Unfortunately he seemed to be reporting information to the leader of the Pack.

He closed Jimmy’s folder and thought over it. Of the five of them, he was the most normal, despite being as jumpy as he was. Maybe he just got bad luck in which group he decided to join up with. Turning back to the pile of folders, he picked up the next one.

The next picture showed a man with untidy brown hair and a long, handsome face that you could trust. Then again, that was what had allowed him to get away with his crime as long as he did. “Cliff Henderson, A.K.A. Clyde…”

----

“…I promise you, this is the best crack you’ll find this side of the city.”

The detective stood at the far end of the street, keeping a wary eye at the alley on the opposite side, the tall man talking to the plant they had set up. They’d found out that someone was dealing in the area and were trying to find him. Seemed like they finally had, and she was waiting for the right moment.

“Yeah yeah, I’m sure. Look just… just give it to me, okay?” The plant said. He did a good job playing the role of a junkie just trying to get one more whiff. Then again that was why they hired him. He was good at his job. “How much?”

“Two hundred,” said the dealer. “Hand it over.” The plant nodded and took out a wad of cash. “Yeah yeah, just… let me see the stuff first, alright? I need to see it.”

The detective stifled a chuckle as the dealer held out a bag of white powder. Whoever this Clyde guy was, he was sloppy, dealing in the middle of an alley. He started to hand the stuff over, and the money touched his hand… when suddenly he seemed to sniff, and pulled his hands back with both the cocaine and the money. “You’re setting me up!”
The detective cursed. “Shit, now!” Suddenly, from the other end of the alley two policemen appeared, guns drawn and aimed at the dealer. He whirled around and yelled at them before spinning and knocking down the plant, taking off into the street. Frantically, the detective chased after him. “Stop right there! Hey!”

Though the detective considered herself in good shape, the dealer was amazing, running along the street at an incredible pace, almost inhuman! The detective panted as she pulled up her radio and yelled into it. “Suspect running down… down fifth, passing Washington… he’s fast, dammit!” Suddenly sirens went off, and the dealer leapt down another road.

The chase lasted almost half an hour, and any time the detective seemed to be catching up the dealer seemed to find another burst of speed. Finally, the other policemen managed to cut him off, one of the cars nearly slamming into him. He froze and whirled around like a frightened animal before the detective ran up and tackled him to the ground. The dealer let out a strange nickering cry as the detective grabbed her handcuffs. “You have the right… to remain silent…”

----

“…found guilty of unlawful possession and distribution of three different illegal drugs. Sentenced to 15 years. Incarcerated 2007.” Sanchez drowned another shot of alcohol. After the arrest, cops found and searched over Cliff’s apartment and found several stashes of illegal drugs, though complained of some stench that they couldn’t identify.

Sanchez looked over the picture in the file. Cliff was in fairly good shape when he was brought in, but a half an hour run at speeds as fast as any sprinter was unheard of. He thought he was doing some sort of steroids or drugs, but the urine tests showed him clean of anything of the sorts.

In The Pack, Cliff had found his way as the voice of the group, using words to get the other prisoners to listen before force would be necessary. He was also a hell of a fighter, and many who had crossed him had come in to the infirmary wondering if they’d ever be able to bear children.

The warden sighed and turned to the third file, opening it up. Inside was an image of a young kid fresh from college, maybe 21 with black hair. He had a white dyed streak through it, and looked, quite frankly, petrified. “Anthony Ryan, A.K.A. Stripes…”

----

“…and how do you plead, Mr. Ryan?”

“Innocent, I swear! It was an accident!” Cried the kid standing before the judge.

“It was an accident that you ran out of the store in question with a radio?” Asked the judge, eyeing him warily.

“I, er, um, yes it was…” Anthony said, stumbling over his words.

“Explain this, please,” said the judge. “Because I’d like to hear how running out of the store and then leading the mall security on a fifteen minute chase would qualify as an ‘accident’.”

“Well I, er…” The young man muttered. “I was, um, browsing for a new stereo… you know, for my apartment? When some guy startled me and I spr… I um, got scared and ran.” He looked down at last part.

“Some man startled you and you ran with a brand new radio?” The judge asked, disbelieving. “Hard to believe.”

“It’s true, I swear! I forgot I was holding it until I was outside and several stores down, and when I saw the mall cops after me I got scared and…”

“And you kept running, I assume?”

“Yes! I panicked! When you see police chasing after you you just… I don’t know! Keep running, even if it’s a misunderstanding!”

“At least until you trip and fall into the mall’s fountain and ruin the radio you stole,” finished the judge.

“I didn’t steal it!” Retorted Anthony desperately.

The judge just sighed. “No, you didn’t, just borrowed, is that it?”

Anthony was nervous, a bit of sweat dripping down his forehead. “I… I was going to bring it back, I swear, but I don’t have the money to pay for it after it fell in the water. Look I-”

“Mr. Ryan,” the judge said, looking down at him intently. “If you could not purchase the radio, why were you holding it? And why give some flimsy excuse like ‘you were startled’? I’m sorry, but since you can’t produce a valid excuse or pay for the damages I’m going to have to find you…”

----

“…guilty of petty theft. Sentenced to six months. Incarcerated 2008.” Sanchez remembered hearing about the trial. The kid was dragged out of the room screaming something about “knowing changes” or other. It wasn’t quite clear. The whole thing may have been an accident, but there was no way of knowing.

The kid had only arrived in the prison a month prior, but in just a week he had been taken into The Pack and nicknamed Stripes. Nobody could quite figure out why he was accepted so quickly when other prisoners had been trying to get in for a while now, especially when Anthony seemed to smell worse than any of the other prisoners when they’d gone a month without washing.

Sanchez turned to the fourth file, opening it up to reveal a man in his late 20’s with ragged gray hair, his lips curled in an angry snarl. This one was an unknown, nobody knew his name or any history, and he insisted on being known under a title. “Name Unknown, A.K.A. The Werewolf of Manhattan, A.K.A. Beta…”

----

“…I’m sorry, did you just say you wanted this gang?”

The man in the ragged clothes grinned. “Yeah you heard me right, fucker. I should be the Alpha in this gang, not you.” The other gang members watched from nearby as he faced their leader of three years.

The leader laughed. “Oh is that so? And why the hell should I make you the grand almighty leader of the Wolf Gang?”

The man grinned. “Because I’m the fucking Werewolf of Manhattan, that’s why. Can’t you see it?” He held his arms out. For whatever he called himself, he looked pretty pitiful. Barefoot, with ragged hair and torn clothes.

The leader lifted his head back and laughed. “The WHAT of Manhattan?! Fuck man, you look like you were MAULED by a wolf! Why don’t you go back to whatever hole you crawled out of and let the big boys do their work.” He waved his hand dismissively, shooing the man off.

The man wouldn’t take it, however. “Oh I see,” he said. “You can’t see it either. You can’t see how fucking perfect I am to lead this gang. Nobody else could. Nobody else believed me.”

The leader chuckled. “What are you, crazy? You’re just some punk I picked up off the streets. You couldn’t lead a horse to water!” This got a couple chuckles from his groupies.

The man fumed. “You don’t think I could do it, huh? Well then we’re the Wolf Gang, how about we settle this like wolves? I challenge you to a fight. I win, I get the gang. You win, and I’ll lay over and let you lead.”

The leader raised an eyebrow. “You fucking serious? I’d break both your arms like twigs, no way you’d win.

The man gave a malicious grin. “Dead serious. And I’ll see you dead before me. Hand to hand, right here, right now. You and me. Or are you too much of a chicken to fight me?”

That got the leader. He stepped forward. “I’m no chicken, I eat them for breakfast. You and me right here.” He gestured at the other members of the gang. “Make a circle, make a circle!”

The other members backed up, forming a wide circle around the two. The leader tore off his shirt, saying he wanted to use it to mop up the blood when he was done. The man just stood at the other end, glaring at him with an inhuman madness in his eyes, eagerness in his grin.

The two backed up to the edges of the circle, facing each other. The man growled at the leader, watching him as they paced, the other gang members starting to cheer on. “Come on,” taunted the leader, beckoning. “Come on you, let’s see what the great fucking Werewolf of Manhattan’s got!”

Nobody was expecting what happened next. With a savage, inhuman cry the man leapt forward at the leader. Fear was written on his face as they grappled, blood flying almost instantly. Several of the gang members thought for just a moment, they saw an actual werewolf fighting in the dim light.

The battle was a short fury of yelps and shouts and barks and cries, but it ended with the leader, dead on the ground, strange claw marks over his body, his throat hanging out of his neck. The man stood there over the body with his hands covered in blood, panting, before he tilted his head back and let out a long howl of victory. Finally he cried out, “I AM THE ALPHA! I LEAD THIS GANG!” He looked around at the other gang members. “Anyone dare question me?”

Nobody said a word.

----

“…convicted of three counts of first degree murder. Sentenced to life in prison. Incarcerated 2006.” Beta led his Wolf Gang for half a year before police managed to capture him. The gang had killed few people before, but Beta’s kills were notable in that none of them had bullets or blade wounds. Each one looked like it had been viciously mauled, with the throat torn out. Sanchez rubbed his neck as he thought about that, and poured himself another shot of vodka.

Beta was about as bloodthirsty as he was ambitious. He was the second-in-command of The Pack, and the guards believed him the instigator of the riots, fighting throughout them until he was hit by a tazer round. He always looked pissed off whenever anyone called him Beta, and he clearly wanted to be the leader of The Pack.

Not that that was going to happen anytime soon, considering the leader of the pack. The final file opened to reveal an image of a serious-looking asian, built like a tank and six and a half feet tall. Sanchez downed his drink as he looked at the file. “Benjamin Wong, A.K.A. Old Big Ben…”

----

“…Sir, Mr. Wong is standing outside here. He says he wishes to see you.”

The manager looked up at the woman looking in his doorway. “Mr. Wong? What’s he doing here? I thought I fired him two weeks ago.”

“I know that, sir, he says that’s what he wanted to talk to you about,” she said. She looked spooked, like she had seen a ghost of some sort. The manager sighed and waved for her to let him in.

Mr. Wong walked into the room a few moments later and slammed the door behind him, his face displaying a mixture of fury and eagerness. “Ah Mr. Wong, what can I-”

“Don’t Mr. Wong me, you bastard,” Mr. Wong said, striding up to him. “I want my job back. Now.” He slammed his hands on the manager’s desk, a deep-throated growl escaping from his throat.

The manager had to admit, if Mr. Wong was trying to intimidate him, it was working. “Ah… Mr. Wong, you know I can’t do that. Considering why you were let go-”

“That was bullshit and you know it!” Mr. Wong roared, pointing a large finger at the manager. “You give me back my job right now you fucker or I’ll tear your heart out and throw it across the room.”

The manager felt a drop of sweat flow down his neck. “Are you threatening me, Mr. Wong?”

Mr. Wong smirked. “Yeah I’m threatening you. What the fuck are you going to do about it?”

The manager summoned up every ounce of bravery he had. He’d had angry workers before and had dealt with them, he could deal with one more. “Mr. Wong, I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to le-” he was suddenly interrupted when Mr. Wong threw the desk to the side, crashing it against the wall before grabbing the manager by the throat and slamming him against the wall behind him. The manager grabbed the thickly muscled arm, trying to free his throat, to no avail.

“You little shit,” Mr. Wong said, leaning in close. “You stiff me on my paychecks, you treat my work like shit, and then you fire me when I consider reporting you to your superiors. And don’t think I don’t know how you were banging the secretary on the side.” He sniffed the manager’s collar. “You did it this morning, didn’t you? I can smell her on you, you know.”

The manager tried to gasp for air, to say something, but his windpipe felt like it was being crushed. His arms weakly pushed at the man before him, finding himself start to black out, before Mr. Wong through him to the ground. The manager gasped for air desperately, when he saw Mr. Wong hovering over him. “I am going to enjoy this VERY much, ‘boss’.” He grinned, and then drove his hand straight into the manager’s chest.

The last thing the manager heard before a silent ringing entered his ears, was his secretary’s high-pitched scream. And the last thing he saw before sweet darkness enveloped him, was a terrible monster standing over him, placing his heart into its mouth, his blood dripping from its claws…

----

“…convicted of two counts of first degree murder. Sentenced to life in prison. Incarcerated 2004.” Sanchez shivered as he remembered the photos from the murder scene. Both the manager of the company and his secretary had their hearts torn out, and Benjamin had blood all over his hands and mouth. A worker had called the police as soon as he heard the crash, but it took three shocks from tazers to put the brick of a man down.

Benjamin was one of the biggest men in the prison, but managed to put them all to shame. Everybody feared him and respected him and wanted to be in his Pack once he formed it, but he was very specific in who got in. Nobody knew what he saw in the other four, or why he wouldn’t take other prisoners, but he said he had his reasons. Something about “The Next Evolution of Humanity”.

Sanchez sighed again and downed the last of the vodka. As he did, he glanced at the files one last time, only to get a weird shock. Each of the profile shots had changed, looking like the heads of animals. A rat. A horse. A skunk. A wolf. A white tiger. He shook his head and suddenly they resumed their human appearances. “Ugh, I must’ve drunk more than I thought…” With a groan, he closed the files and put them away, settling himself down to another night at the prison. It was a long day, and he needed the sleep.

User:Chessrook44/Unforseen Reactions

2011-07-02T18:51:32Z

Chessrook44:

== Lister's Tales 2: Unforseen Reactions ==

'''September 7th, 2005'''

“Ak… essshTODAY IS” *click* “Blasted alarm…”

Grumbling, my hand sliding off the alarm clock and looking at the time, I sat up and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, yawning widely. Glancing down at myself, I got up, climbed down the ladder of my bed, and headed into the bathroom with my clothes to freshen up, my tail flicking about behind me.

It had been three weeks since Change Day, when I and about a hundred thousand other people around the world had changed into strange hybrids of human and animal. And yet despite that, nobody who hadn’t changed was any wiser thanks to the Veil, as it was informally known, that disguised how we felt, looked, and sounded to those that had not changed. It had been two weeks since I had learned about the rest of the Changed in the Network, and in that time I had been learning as much as I could.

As I relieved myself, I glanced down at my now-female body and again thanked ROB (As I heard some people refer to whatever was controlling the change) for granting me a female body. I wasn’t a transsexual, mind you, but the stories I’d heard about the “gymnastics” others had to perform after changing made me glad I could just sit down and avoid all those problems. A silly reason, perhaps, but I’d take it where I could get it before the Visitor in Red came sometime in the future. And I was NOT looking forward to that.

I then proceeded to tug on my clothes, briefs under jeans, neither pulled up all the way in the back due to my tail. I’d read up on the various tips and instructions for how to modify pants for the various kinds of tails out there, from short to long, fluffy to bare, thin to fat, but I couldn’t use any of them. I was still in high school and living with my parents, and they got on my case for the smallest hole in my knee. As such, I just dealt with leaving it a bit low.

The shirt went on next, and as was common, I shivered a bit as the fabric rubbed over the front of my chest. I had been a guy before the change and the rest of the world still saw me as a guy despite my assets, so I ended up having ill-fitting clothes. And despite what other TG on the boards would say, there was no way in heaven or hell I was going to wear a bra and panties while I still appeared a guy. I may have been taking the change better than most other TG, but I still had some masculinity. And wearing my men’s clothes helped me feel better inwardly. Plus, again, it solved a laundry issue.

After dressing up I walked into the kitchen and put a pop-tart in the toaster oven while I started feeding the cat, again thankful we had him. While the Veil hid how I looked, it didn’t hide what I left behind, and shed fur and odd smells WOULD be difficult to explain were it not for the fact that we had a grey and white cat (close enough to two out of three of my fur colors to let some of them slide) and the fact that my parents have been telling me my room smelled for years now. (Hey, it didn’t smell to me. I just kept it closed up whenever it wasn’t summer and overheating. I’ll just keep saying it doesn’t smell and nobody’s the wiser.). There were some other things I still had to watch out for, like my reddish fur if it fell anywhere or the fact I was taking shorter showers now, along with possible claw marks or other things, but again, I’d take what relief I could where I could find it. So far nobody had suspected anything.

Eventually, an hour later, the bus arrived, and I spent the next two hours on the bus with my mind wandering, tail curled into my lap as I was wont to do while sitting. I lived on the south coast of Long Island, but I went to an alternative school on the north coast for personal reasons and loved it there, the closeness of the students and faculty feeling like another family… which meant more difficulties trying to do the same things I always did. I couldn’t gallop through the halls anymore for example (I had odd habits, but I loved my strangeness) but I hoped they’d be too distracted by the silence to say anything.

I sighed as I thought of that, glancing down at my paws. Despite the years of changes, nobody had even tried to make shoes for furs. They saw no need when a majority of the Changed preferred to go barepaw or barehoof anyway, and the shoe field stopped any questions of why they were walking through the snow without worry of frostbite. Me, however, I just wanted to protect my paws from getting dirty or gum getting in my fur. I had seen a hopeful post from someone saying “We are looking into it”, but I had heard nothing more from them since.

Finally we arrived at the school and I stepped off the bus, looking over the small building. I had hopes that maybe one of the teachers or students had changed, and my mind went crazy with what I would do if one of them was changed. I walked in to the loungish area to wait for first period, sitting down and looking around. I was one of the earliest, as usual, and others would be in soon. I wondered if-

“OH MY GOD!”

My head whirled around at the voice. My first thought was “Did someone change?” but when I saw Jessie, another student and still human, I realized that wasn’t it. She was staring at me with pure shock and disbelief on her face. I blinked, feeling a little nervous. She couldn’t see me, could she? I’m wearing the same clothes, nothing is showing, I’m wearing my shoes, what could it be?

My answer came when she lifted an arm, pointed a finger directly at me, and cried out, “You got a NEW HAT!”

I exhaled and chuckled. Ah yes, that. My old hat I had been wearing for 11 years straight without fail, but due to extenuating circumstances had to retire it over the summer and get a new one. Considering how that hat sometimes seemed as much a part of me as feathers on a duck, the reaction made sense. “Yeah, new hat. Had to retire the old one,” I said, as my mind started thinking, This is going to be a fun year.

The rest of the day proceeded as a day at school would usually go, barring the occasional shocked exclamation that I had changed my hat. Each time it happened, I rubbed my hat and inwardly grumbled about my ears folded up underneath it. Someday they’ll make hats for us furs, I thought, and when that day comes I’ll be… oh, maybe third in line. The hat thing, thankfully, added as a sort of distraction and nobody even noticed that some of my other oddities had let up.

Around lunch and after I got my daily pizza I took my laptop (Which the school thoughtfully provided us while we were there) and went online to check up on the two Changed forums I had joined. I sat with my back against a wall to make sure nobody looked, but nonetheless I kept a wary ear out for anyone coming up. The main site for the overall Changed Network was hopping with activity as usual, and we’d even found another couple changed in the last couple days with the start of school.

The NYChanged forum, however, remained silent and dead. Though NYC was one of the largest cities in the US, there didn’t seem to be enough Changed to really make it that active. Only myself, Eli the rabbit, and about a dozen others counted ourselves as changed in NYC and Long Island and posted on the boards, but considering the way the Change seemed to be spreading it made sense. There was only a little over 250 thousand of us at current estimation, and most seemed to be concentrated in the northern central US. Ah well, we’d get more in the coming years.

The rest of the day went uneventfully. I went to my classes, rode the bus home, had dinner, tucked some red hairs behind the couch, went on the IRC, and went to bed. A fairly dull day for one of the only furred people on Long Island, but it went well all things considered. I’m sure I’d have plenty of other problems in the future.

'''October 19th, 2005'''

Today was not going to be a fun day. Damn this change!

The school I was in never had a gym class, but instead went on physical trips once a month. I even enjoyed some of them, and at first didn’t think there would be any problems. Until they announced this trip: A brunch at Ihop, followed by bowling.

Normally I’d enjoy this, as I like bowling, but there was just one problem. The Shoe Field. Shoes just disappeared off my feet when I put them on, and despite keeping my claws trimmed they occasionally tapped on the ground or caught on carpets. This was going to be a challenge.

And deciding to be a bit more cruel, the Red Visitor had decided to stop by today and I was not in a good mood. And apparently I wasn’t doing a very good job of hiding it.

“Les, you alright?” I looked up and across the table at Stan, a bit of bacon hanging out of my mouth. “You’ve been acting kinda weird lately.”

I pulled the bacon in and nodded as I chewed, giving a smirk. “What, you mean I’m not normally weird?” I said with a chuckle, trying to play it off.

“Nah man,” Stan replied. “I mean you haven’t even been talking to anyone lately. Something eating you up?”

I shook my head. “No no, I’m fine. Been feeling a bit cruddy lately but it’s nothing. I’ll be fine, though I’ll probably suck once we start playing.”

Stan chuckled. “Not as badly as I will.” I smirked as I continued to eat my food. Oh Stan, you have no idea…

----

…and I have no idea how I’m going to bowl, I thought as we walked into the bowling alley. My ears pushed against my hat as they tried to flatten, both in nervous anticipation and in reaction to the constant echoing crashes of the other bowlers. After picking our lanes and a brief discussion of how many games we’d play and how we’d be doing everything from the teachers I headed up to get my shoes (fairly pointlessly for me I thought at first) only to get a very pleasant surprise.

As I approached the counter where two workers were handing out the shoes, I saw one had stopped and was staring at me with a shocked look on his muzzle. Yes muzzle, as he was a changed raccoon! A new one it seemed, considering the stare. Planting a smile on my face I got into the line for him and tried to motion for him to stop staring. It didn’t work too well however as he kept staring at me when he wasn’t helping someone else. When I finally got up to him I muttered, “Stop staring, people will think you’re hitting on me or something.”

His ears folded back as he looked at me. “I… I’m sorry miss I just… oh man, I thought I was going crazy! But you’re actually a-”

I waved my hands at him quickly. “Shshshshsh! Not so loud, alright? Everyone still sees us as guys. Men’s nine and a half please,” I said, a little louder on the last part.

His head tilted as he gave me an odd look, glancing down at my chest. “Men’s?”

I sighed and crossed my arms over my chest, closing my eyes. “Yes, Men’s. Just roll with it, alright? Some of us had a much more drastic change than others. And don’t worry, I’m going to try not to scuff up the lanes with my claws.”

The raccoon nodded and got the shoes, coming back and handing them to me. “Here you are, uh, sir. Oh and,” he leaned in towards me. “pick a ball with slightly larger finger holes. Otherwise you’ll break a claw and be in pain the rest of the day.” He showed be his hand, one of his claws on his fingers showing that he learned that the hard way.

I nodded back and decided to ask another question. “And the paws? Any suggestions there to reduce damage, since these shoes are just going to disappear?”

He gestured at a vending machine nearby. “Use the socks from the vending machine there and try not to get your claws caught. It’ll help a bit.” My reply was to glance down at my own fabric-covered paws, nod in thanks, take the shoes and walk off.

As I was looking through the bowling balls for one that seemed right, Stan came up behind me. “Dude, what were you talking with that guy about?” I winced, remembering Stan had been right behind me.

“Oh I ah, I was asking him some, er… tips for bowling.” God that was a lame excuse, even I didn’t believe it. Stan didn’t either and he tried to get more information out of me, but I brushed him off with the same excuse before grabbing a ball and heading down to the lanes.

The bowling itself went about as well as could be expected. Several times my claws felt like they might have scratched the flooring, a few times the ball arced up as it caught on a claw and slammed on the floor with a resounding and embarrassing BANG, and those problems along with my own inexperience combined to give me a whopping score of 14. Embarrassed, I quickly walked back to the raccoon while the others finished their game, beckoning him to an end of the counter.

“Alright, let me give you the short version,” I said to him. “Yes we’re really animal-people. There’s about 250 thousand of us worldwide about now, some of us are the wrong gender, it’s more or less permanent, we don’t know who or what’s causing it, and everyone else sees us as we were before we changed.”

“But what are we supposed to do?” he asked. “I mean I can’t live like this forever! What do I tell my wife?”

“Tell her what you want, some of us have been living this way for close to 20 years. Look, here’s some sites that should help,” I said, handing him a piece of paper with links to the main Network site and the NYChanged site, explaining them to him. “Listen, we’re all in this together, and there’s more of us every year. I’m sorry I can’t help you more, but it’s the best I can do right now.”

He sighed, his ears splaying out as he looked at the paper. “Right. Thanks for that anyway, I guess. At least now I know I’m not crazy, hmm?” He shook his head. “What’s your name anyway?”

“Lester, but call me LC,” I replied. “We use the initials to let other Changed know that we look like the opposite gender to the UnChanged.”

“So you were really a guy before this happened?” He looked down over me, eyes lingering on my chest. “And those are real?”

I placed a pair of fingers to my temple and sighed. “Yes I was a guy, yes I switched genders, and I’m only 17 so quit staring before your boss sees and gets REALLY wrong ideas, ok?” His eyes snapped back up and he nodded, the faint hint of a blush under his fur. “I gotta get back to the group, ok? Take care, and visit those sites. I mean it, it’ll help you cope a lot.” I waved back at him as I walked back to the group.

The rest of the trip went uneventfully, and I felt relieved that I didn’t have the lowest score of everyone there. Two others got lower scores than me, one at 9 and one got nothing but gutterballs, and that made me feel a bit better. After I got home and ate dinner that evening I logged on to the forums to find that the raccoon (whose name was Steven, it turned out) had already introduced himself and thanked me for finding him. After replying to his posts and giving what extra information I could I logged off and went to bed. Despite my anticipation over how badly the day could have gone, overall it went fairly well. Hopefully the coming days would go even better.

User:Chessrook44/Unforseen Reactions

2011-07-02T18:50:45Z

Chessrook44: Created page with ''''September 7th, 2005''' “Ak… essshTODAY IS” *click* “Blasted alarm…” Grumbling, my hand sliding off the alarm clock and looking at the time, I sat up and rubbe…'

'''September 7th, 2005'''

“Ak… essshTODAY IS” *click* “Blasted alarm…”

Grumbling, my hand sliding off the alarm clock and looking at the time, I sat up and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, yawning widely. Glancing down at myself, I got up, climbed down the ladder of my bed, and headed into the bathroom with my clothes to freshen up, my tail flicking about behind me.

It had been three weeks since Change Day, when I and about a hundred thousand other people around the world had changed into strange hybrids of human and animal. And yet despite that, nobody who hadn’t changed was any wiser thanks to the Veil, as it was informally known, that disguised how we felt, looked, and sounded to those that had not changed. It had been two weeks since I had learned about the rest of the Changed in the Network, and in that time I had been learning as much as I could.

As I relieved myself, I glanced down at my now-female body and again thanked ROB (As I heard some people refer to whatever was controlling the change) for granting me a female body. I wasn’t a transsexual, mind you, but the stories I’d heard about the “gymnastics” others had to perform after changing made me glad I could just sit down and avoid all those problems. A silly reason, perhaps, but I’d take it where I could get it before the Visitor in Red came sometime in the future. And I was NOT looking forward to that.

I then proceeded to tug on my clothes, briefs under jeans, neither pulled up all the way in the back due to my tail. I’d read up on the various tips and instructions for how to modify pants for the various kinds of tails out there, from short to long, fluffy to bare, thin to fat, but I couldn’t use any of them. I was still in high school and living with my parents, and they got on my case for the smallest hole in my knee. As such, I just dealt with leaving it a bit low.

The shirt went on next, and as was common, I shivered a bit as the fabric rubbed over the front of my chest. I had been a guy before the change and the rest of the world still saw me as a guy despite my assets, so I ended up having ill-fitting clothes. And despite what other TG on the boards would say, there was no way in heaven or hell I was going to wear a bra and panties while I still appeared a guy. I may have been taking the change better than most other TG, but I still had some masculinity. And wearing my men’s clothes helped me feel better inwardly. Plus, again, it solved a laundry issue.

After dressing up I walked into the kitchen and put a pop-tart in the toaster oven while I started feeding the cat, again thankful we had him. While the Veil hid how I looked, it didn’t hide what I left behind, and shed fur and odd smells WOULD be difficult to explain were it not for the fact that we had a grey and white cat (close enough to two out of three of my fur colors to let some of them slide) and the fact that my parents have been telling me my room smelled for years now. (Hey, it didn’t smell to me. I just kept it closed up whenever it wasn’t summer and overheating. I’ll just keep saying it doesn’t smell and nobody’s the wiser.). There were some other things I still had to watch out for, like my reddish fur if it fell anywhere or the fact I was taking shorter showers now, along with possible claw marks or other things, but again, I’d take what relief I could where I could find it. So far nobody had suspected anything.

Eventually, an hour later, the bus arrived, and I spent the next two hours on the bus with my mind wandering, tail curled into my lap as I was wont to do while sitting. I lived on the south coast of Long Island, but I went to an alternative school on the north coast for personal reasons and loved it there, the closeness of the students and faculty feeling like another family… which meant more difficulties trying to do the same things I always did. I couldn’t gallop through the halls anymore for example (I had odd habits, but I loved my strangeness) but I hoped they’d be too distracted by the silence to say anything.

I sighed as I thought of that, glancing down at my paws. Despite the years of changes, nobody had even tried to make shoes for furs. They saw no need when a majority of the Changed preferred to go barepaw or barehoof anyway, and the shoe field stopped any questions of why they were walking through the snow without worry of frostbite. Me, however, I just wanted to protect my paws from getting dirty or gum getting in my fur. I had seen a hopeful post from someone saying “We are looking into it”, but I had heard nothing more from them since.

Finally we arrived at the school and I stepped off the bus, looking over the small building. I had hopes that maybe one of the teachers or students had changed, and my mind went crazy with what I would do if one of them was changed. I walked in to the loungish area to wait for first period, sitting down and looking around. I was one of the earliest, as usual, and others would be in soon. I wondered if-

“OH MY GOD!”

My head whirled around at the voice. My first thought was “Did someone change?” but when I saw Jessie, another student and still human, I realized that wasn’t it. She was staring at me with pure shock and disbelief on her face. I blinked, feeling a little nervous. She couldn’t see me, could she? I’m wearing the same clothes, nothing is showing, I’m wearing my shoes, what could it be?

My answer came when she lifted an arm, pointed a finger directly at me, and cried out, “You got a NEW HAT!”

I exhaled and chuckled. Ah yes, that. My old hat I had been wearing for 11 years straight without fail, but due to extenuating circumstances had to retire it over the summer and get a new one. Considering how that hat sometimes seemed as much a part of me as feathers on a duck, the reaction made sense. “Yeah, new hat. Had to retire the old one,” I said, as my mind started thinking, This is going to be a fun year.

The rest of the day proceeded as a day at school would usually go, barring the occasional shocked exclamation that I had changed my hat. Each time it happened, I rubbed my hat and inwardly grumbled about my ears folded up underneath it. Someday they’ll make hats for us furs, I thought, and when that day comes I’ll be… oh, maybe third in line. The hat thing, thankfully, added as a sort of distraction and nobody even noticed that some of my other oddities had let up.

Around lunch and after I got my daily pizza I took my laptop (Which the school thoughtfully provided us while we were there) and went online to check up on the two Changed forums I had joined. I sat with my back against a wall to make sure nobody looked, but nonetheless I kept a wary ear out for anyone coming up. The main site for the overall Changed Network was hopping with activity as usual, and we’d even found another couple changed in the last couple days with the start of school.

The NYChanged forum, however, remained silent and dead. Though NYC was one of the largest cities in the US, there didn’t seem to be enough Changed to really make it that active. Only myself, Eli the rabbit, and about a dozen others counted ourselves as changed in NYC and Long Island and posted on the boards, but considering the way the Change seemed to be spreading it made sense. There was only a little over 250 thousand of us at current estimation, and most seemed to be concentrated in the northern central US. Ah well, we’d get more in the coming years.

The rest of the day went uneventfully. I went to my classes, rode the bus home, had dinner, tucked some red hairs behind the couch, went on the IRC, and went to bed. A fairly dull day for one of the only furred people on Long Island, but it went well all things considered. I’m sure I’d have plenty of other problems in the future.

'''October 19th, 2005'''

Today was not going to be a fun day. Damn this change!

The school I was in never had a gym class, but instead went on physical trips once a month. I even enjoyed some of them, and at first didn’t think there would be any problems. Until they announced this trip: A brunch at Ihop, followed by bowling.

Normally I’d enjoy this, as I like bowling, but there was just one problem. The Shoe Field. Shoes just disappeared off my feet when I put them on, and despite keeping my claws trimmed they occasionally tapped on the ground or caught on carpets. This was going to be a challenge.

And deciding to be a bit more cruel, the Red Visitor had decided to stop by today and I was not in a good mood. And apparently I wasn’t doing a very good job of hiding it.

“Les, you alright?” I looked up and across the table at Stan, a bit of bacon hanging out of my mouth. “You’ve been acting kinda weird lately.”

I pulled the bacon in and nodded as I chewed, giving a smirk. “What, you mean I’m not normally weird?” I said with a chuckle, trying to play it off.

“Nah man,” Stan replied. “I mean you haven’t even been talking to anyone lately. Something eating you up?”

I shook my head. “No no, I’m fine. Been feeling a bit cruddy lately but it’s nothing. I’ll be fine, though I’ll probably suck once we start playing.”

Stan chuckled. “Not as badly as I will.” I smirked as I continued to eat my food. Oh Stan, you have no idea…

----

…and I have no idea how I’m going to bowl, I thought as we walked into the bowling alley. My ears pushed against my hat as they tried to flatten, both in nervous anticipation and in reaction to the constant echoing crashes of the other bowlers. After picking our lanes and a brief discussion of how many games we’d play and how we’d be doing everything from the teachers I headed up to get my shoes (fairly pointlessly for me I thought at first) only to get a very pleasant surprise.

As I approached the counter where two workers were handing out the shoes, I saw one had stopped and was staring at me with a shocked look on his muzzle. Yes muzzle, as he was a changed raccoon! A new one it seemed, considering the stare. Planting a smile on my face I got into the line for him and tried to motion for him to stop staring. It didn’t work too well however as he kept staring at me when he wasn’t helping someone else. When I finally got up to him I muttered, “Stop staring, people will think you’re hitting on me or something.”

His ears folded back as he looked at me. “I… I’m sorry miss I just… oh man, I thought I was going crazy! But you’re actually a-”

I waved my hands at him quickly. “Shshshshsh! Not so loud, alright? Everyone still sees us as guys. Men’s nine and a half please,” I said, a little louder on the last part.

His head tilted as he gave me an odd look, glancing down at my chest. “Men’s?”

I sighed and crossed my arms over my chest, closing my eyes. “Yes, Men’s. Just roll with it, alright? Some of us had a much more drastic change than others. And don’t worry, I’m going to try not to scuff up the lanes with my claws.”

The raccoon nodded and got the shoes, coming back and handing them to me. “Here you are, uh, sir. Oh and,” he leaned in towards me. “pick a ball with slightly larger finger holes. Otherwise you’ll break a claw and be in pain the rest of the day.” He showed be his hand, one of his claws on his fingers showing that he learned that the hard way.

I nodded back and decided to ask another question. “And the paws? Any suggestions there to reduce damage, since these shoes are just going to disappear?”

He gestured at a vending machine nearby. “Use the socks from the vending machine there and try not to get your claws caught. It’ll help a bit.” My reply was to glance down at my own fabric-covered paws, nod in thanks, take the shoes and walk off.

As I was looking through the bowling balls for one that seemed right, Stan came up behind me. “Dude, what were you talking with that guy about?” I winced, remembering Stan had been right behind me.

“Oh I ah, I was asking him some, er… tips for bowling.” God that was a lame excuse, even I didn’t believe it. Stan didn’t either and he tried to get more information out of me, but I brushed him off with the same excuse before grabbing a ball and heading down to the lanes.

The bowling itself went about as well as could be expected. Several times my claws felt like they might have scratched the flooring, a few times the ball arced up as it caught on a claw and slammed on the floor with a resounding and embarrassing BANG, and those problems along with my own inexperience combined to give me a whopping score of 14. Embarrassed, I quickly walked back to the raccoon while the others finished their game, beckoning him to an end of the counter.

“Alright, let me give you the short version,” I said to him. “Yes we’re really animal-people. There’s about 250 thousand of us worldwide about now, some of us are the wrong gender, it’s more or less permanent, we don’t know who or what’s causing it, and everyone else sees us as we were before we changed.”

“But what are we supposed to do?” he asked. “I mean I can’t live like this forever! What do I tell my wife?”

“Tell her what you want, some of us have been living this way for close to 20 years. Look, here’s some sites that should help,” I said, handing him a piece of paper with links to the main Network site and the NYChanged site, explaining them to him. “Listen, we’re all in this together, and there’s more of us every year. I’m sorry I can’t help you more, but it’s the best I can do right now.”

He sighed, his ears splaying out as he looked at the paper. “Right. Thanks for that anyway, I guess. At least now I know I’m not crazy, hmm?” He shook his head. “What’s your name anyway?”

“Lester, but call me LC,” I replied. “We use the initials to let other Changed know that we look like the opposite gender to the UnChanged.”

“So you were really a guy before this happened?” He looked down over me, eyes lingering on my chest. “And those are real?”

I placed a pair of fingers to my temple and sighed. “Yes I was a guy, yes I switched genders, and I’m only 17 so quit staring before your boss sees and gets REALLY wrong ideas, ok?” His eyes snapped back up and he nodded, the faint hint of a blush under his fur. “I gotta get back to the group, ok? Take care, and visit those sites. I mean it, it’ll help you cope a lot.” I waved back at him as I walked back to the group.

The rest of the trip went uneventfully, and I felt relieved that I didn’t have the lowest score of everyone there. Two others got lower scores than me, one at 9 and one got nothing but gutterballs, and that made me feel a bit better. After I got home and ate dinner that evening I logged on to the forums to find that the raccoon (whose name was Steven, it turned out) had already introduced himself and thanked me for finding him. After replying to his posts and giving what extra information I could I logged off and went to bed. Despite my anticipation over how badly the day could have gone, overall it went fairly well. Hopefully the coming days would go even better.

User:Chessrook44

2011-07-02T18:47:42Z

Chessrook44:

So yeah, um... not much to say here, I don't use Wikis much (like, at all) so this'll probably look very newbish and I should stop talking about it like this and GAHENOUGH!!!!

Anyway, not much to say about me, except for the various ideas I have in mind struggling to get onto virtual paper whenever I can find the motivation to do it. Should anything be created, you shall find it posted here. Expect rare updates. Emphasis on rare.

'''Lester's Tales'''

These stories take place in the Paradise setting. Though I only have two complete, I have plans for more in my mind. Heaven only knows if I'll ever get around to them.

[[User:Chessrook44/Unforseen Changes|Episode 1: Unforseen Changes]]

[[User:Chessrook44/Unforseen Reactions|Episode 2: Unforseen Reactions]] *New*

'''Paradise One-shots'''

Stories listed here also take place in the Paradise setting, but are one-shots, separate from Lester's Tales.

[[User:Chessrook44/Incarceration|Incarceration]]

So many stories have been told of the people who suddenly changed and fought against the change, or tolerated it, or learned to deal with it. But what about those who not only embraced it... but USED it for selfish ends?

User:Chessrook44

2011-07-02T18:47:16Z

Chessrook44:

So yeah, um... not much to say here, I don't use Wikis much (like, at all) so this'll probably look very newbish and I should stop talking about it like this and GAHENOUGH!!!!

Anyway, not much to say about me, except for the various ideas I have in mind struggling to get onto virtual paper whenever I can find the motivation to do it. Should anything be created, you shall find it posted here. Expect rare updates. Emphasis on rare.

'''Lester's Tales'''

These stories take place in the Paradise setting. Though I only have two complete, I have plans for more in my mind. Heaven only knows if I'll ever get around to them.

[[User:Chessrook44/Unforseen Changes|Episode 1: Unforseen Changes]]
[[User:Chessrook44/Unforseen Reactions|Episode 2: Unforseen Reactions]] *New*

'''Paradise One-shots'''

Stories listed here also take place in the Paradise setting, but are one-shots, separate from Lester's Tales.

[[User:Chessrook44/Incarceration|Incarceration]]
So many stories have been told of the people who suddenly changed and fought against the change, or tolerated it, or learned to deal with it. But what about those who not only embraced it... but USED it for selfish ends?

User:Chessrook44

2011-02-06T14:39:08Z

Chessrook44:

Unforseen Changes

2011-02-06T14:38:38Z

Chessrook44: moved Unforseen Changes to User:Chessrook44/Unforseen Changes: Moving to right place

#REDIRECT [[User:Chessrook44/Unforseen Changes]]

User:Chessrook44/Unforseen Changes

2011-02-06T14:38:38Z

Chessrook44: moved Unforseen Changes to User:Chessrook44/Unforseen Changes: Moving to right place

Paradise (Setting)

2011-02-06T14:37:07Z

Chessrook44:

{{Universe|Paradise}}

{{byline|author=Jon Buck
|user=JonBuck}}

A direct link '''[[User:JonBuck/A Kind of Paradise|To the original story.]]'''

=={{separator|f|Stories in Chronological Order}}==

Authors may add links to their stories as they happen in chronological order in story time. For a complete listing of all Paradise stories, since this list may be updated sporadically, see [[:Category:Paradise|the Paradise Category]].

'''2000'''
*[[User:Erastus/On the Outside Looking|On the Outside, Looking...]] ''(Through 2010) ([[User:Erastus|Erastus]])''

'''2001'''
*[[Ranty Raccoon]] ''(Digitalpotato)''

'''2002'''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Made Alone|Made Alone]] ''([[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]])''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Bathing Alone|Bathing Alone]] ''([[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]])''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Not Quite Alone|Not Quite Alone]] ''([[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]])''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Suspected Alone|Suspected Alone]] ''([[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]])''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Revealing Alone|Revealing Alone]] ''([[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]])''

'''2003'''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Convention Building|Convention Building]] ''([[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]])''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Model Building | Model Building]] ''([[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]])''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Change Building | Change Building]] ''([[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]])''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Confession Building | Confession Building]] ''([[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat]])''

'''2004'''
*[[User_talk:Enphilistor| Victory Starts Here]] [recovered from google cache] ''(Enphilistor)''

'''2005'''
*[[User:Jetfire/Holes in the Veil| Holes in the Veil]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Robotech_Master/Capsule_Review:_Changed:_The_Unveiling|RPG.net Capsule Review: Changed: The Unveiling]] ''([[User:Robotech_Master|Robotech_Master]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Lifting The Veil| Lifting The Veil]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Poking the Veil| Poking the Veil]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Chessrook44/Unforseen Changes| Unforseen Changes]] ''([[User:Chessrook44|Chessrook44]])''
*[[User:Eirik/Stages|Stages]] (Through October 2006) ''([[User:Eirik|Eirik]])''

'''2006'''
*[[User:Jetfire/Film at 2011| Film at 2011]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/GM'O'Fur| GM'O'Fur]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Twisting the Veil| Twisting the Veil]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Silver Fox Tracks|Silver Fox Tracks]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Generations| Generations]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/A Rolling Stone Gathers No Veil|A Rolling Stone Gathers No Veil]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Auld Lang Syne|Auld Lang Syne]] (Extends into 2007) ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Eirik/Reverberations|Reverberations]] ''([[User:Eirik|Eirik]])''
*[[User:Eirik/Bare Hands|Bare Hands]] ''([[User:Eirik|Eirik]])''

'''2007'''
*[[User:Eirik/Treatment|Treatment]] ''([[User:Eirik|Eirik]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/It Bears Investigation|It Bears Investigation]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Gaming Furs|Gaming Furs]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:JonBuck/A Kind of Paradise|A Kind of Paradise]] ''([[User:JonBuck|JonBuck]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Radio No Veil|Radio No Veil]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Six Furries and a Wedding|Six Furries and a Wedding]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:JonBuck/Tall Tales|Tall Tales]] ''([[User:JonBuck|JonBuck]])''
*[[User:Nikon/Changing Perspectives|Changing Perspectives]] ''([[User:Nikon|Nikon]])''
*[[User:Nikon/Back to Reality|Back to Reality]] ''([[User:Nikon|Nikon]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Clearing the Air|Clearing the Air]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Eirik/Waters_So_Cold_and_Deep|Waters So Cold and Deep]] ''([[User:Eirik|Eirik]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Doing Hard Time|Doing Hard Time]] (Extends into 2008) ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[Monkey Business]] ''([[User:Boss Hoss|Boss Hoss]])''
*[[User:Nikon/Coming Home|Coming Home]] (guess based on posting date) ''([[User:Nikon|Nikon]])''

'''2008'''
*[[User:Jetfire/Live_At_Five|Live At Five]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Rising Waters|Rising Waters]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Gulf_Ice|Gulf Ice]] (Prelude in 2001) ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/The_Bear_Facts|The Bear Facts]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Election Fever|Election Fever]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Eirik/Centers of Power|Centers of Power]] ''([[User:Eirik|Eirik]])''
*[[User:JonBuck/Open Secrets|Open Secrets]] ''([[User:JonBuck|JonBuck]])''
*[[User:WolfyDrake95/New_World|New World]] ''([[User:WolfyDrake95|WolfyDrake95]])''
*[[User:WolfyDrake95/To_a_Friend|To a Friend]] ''([[User:WolfyDrake95|WolfyDrake95]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Special Care|Special Care]] ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/NorBAC|NorBAC]] (begins in June; jumps to September) ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''
*[[User:Jetfire/Judge_Judy:_Deagle_vs_Anderson|Judge Judy: Deagle vs Anderson]] (2008 or 2009) ''([[User:Jetfire|Jetfire]])''

'''2009'''
*[[User:JonBuck/After Hours|After Hours]] ''([[User:JonBuck|JonBuck]])''

'''2010'''
*[[User:JonBuck/Changing America|Changing America]] (work in progress) ''([[User:JonBuck|JonBuck]])''
*[[User:Robotech_Master/See Change: March 20, 2010|See Change: March 20, 2010]] ''([[User:Robotech_Master|Robotech_Master]])''
*[[User:Robotech_Master/Tiffnapped|Tiffnapped]] ''([[User:Robotech_Master|Robotech_Master]])''
*[[User:Robotech_Master/Holding Helena|Holding Helena]] ''([[User:Robotech_Master|Robotech_Master]])''

'''Alternate Future'''
*[[Cascade Failure]]

=={{separator|f|Basics}}==
*The setting is basically indistinguishable from the Real World up until 1987, the year when people first begin to spontaneously transform into furries.
*Exactly one person transformed in Year One ''(i.e.,'' 1987), and the number of furries doubles in late August each year. The initial story in this setting, [[User:JonBuck/A Kind of Paradise|A Kind of Paradise]], is set in Year 21 ''(i.e.,'' 2007), when there are just over one million furries. The next year (2008) will add a million, for a total of two megafurries, and so forth.
*The first furry in 1987 was a vixen, with a tod the next year. Some stereotypes do have a basis in "reality". :)
**The entire world will be furry in 2020.
*Every year it's possible that an already-changed person could change ''again''. With increasing rarity, all less than one percent:
**A species change. ("What the..? I'm a ''wolf'' now? What am I supposed to do with all these hoof picks?")
**A gender change. ("Where do men put this ''thing'' between our legs when we sit down?")
**A combination of both. ("Don't ''even'' call me a bitch! Just show me how to put on this stupid bra!")
**The next year there is about a 25% chance that the person will revert to their original gender/first species. If that doesn't happen, it's fixed. If they change back... there's another 25% chance that you'll bounce back ''again'' the next year. So there's some potential for characters who spend years alternating between species/gender.
*Also distinctive from Winds of Change: ''No superpowers''. Just whatever natural abilities (things like augmented senses, physical strength, ''etc)'' come from being half animal.
*'''The Role Reversal Paradox.'''
**''IF'' the couple has children, pre- or post-Change, no matter what age...
**''IF'' one of the couple has been transgendered...
**''THEN'' it is essentially a sure thing that the partner will TG as well.
**The reason for this is simple. ROB hates paradoxes. If they have children, there ''must'' be a father and a mother. And it ''must'' be the same two people. It doesn't matter if that person divorced and remarried someone else. Or if they're unmarried. One father, one mother. Otherwise, the kids will logically not have come into existence.
**Conversely, if they are married/going out/living together/etc., the same TG 1% dice roll applies to them as everyone else.

'''Important.''' Please ''do not'' write stories that are father ahead in the timeline than those I have written.''

'''Note on Politics'''. As a request, I ask authors not to use major political figures from Real Life. I don't want any political bashing going on here. Characters like Congressman Sandrick are perfectly fine, so feel free to create fictional members of Congress or Members of Parliament. Remember this world is different from ours from 1987 onwards. There are still details I haven't filled in between then and now, and the Butterfly Effect means that there will be some small, some major differences.

{{add|'''Winners of the 2008 Election'''}}
*President: Karen Hutchinson. (Reverse Pres. Obama and his wife, basically)
*VP: Steven Angstrom

===The Transgendered===
Just a few details.
#This is an earlier, generally harmless virus that got into the simulation. ROB dealt with it by the "history editing" as described in the stories.
#It's been around a LOT longer than the Furry Virus.
#Even though it's probably been around for thousands of years, there are far fewer victims than the Furry Virus as of 2009. I imagine the furry virus co-opted this one for the TGed furs.
#As in real life, there are many more male to female victims than the other way around.
#Transgendered victims have little or no support system like furries do. They're generally isolated. And before 2009 couldn't see through the RDF.

===Physiology===

*Furries can still interbreed with one another as if they were all still human. Children get a 50/50 chance of which of the parents' species they follow.
*Conversely, humans '''cannot''' interbreed with furries, probably due to the RDF.
*There are some physical variations, but not the wide "Degrees" that Winds of Change has. The most obvious differences are hair, feet, and hands. Otherwise, most everyone is about as morphic as seen in common furry art.
**Females most often have hair the same color and similar texture as their fur. Though you do still get the occasional blond.
**Males retain their hair less frequently.
*'''Size Limitations.''' On the suggestion from the Talk page. I'm not going to limit species. However, I will have a minimum/maximum size range:
**7 feet (or 2.1m), max. About 600 lb (272 kg), max.
**4 feet (1.2m). I'll leave the small side open.
*Species are native to a particular continent. So most people in North America will end up whitetail deer, elk, bears, foxes, wolves, etc. Recent immigrants will more likely end up native species to wherever they came from.
**However, this means that someone from Seattle could ''still'' end up a leopard, or a llama, or what-have-you from other continents. I just want to make that clear.
**No mythicals like dragons, griffins, satyrs, vampires, mages, what-have-you. Just furries.
**No birds, reptiles, or other non-mammals.
*'''No Extinct Species.''' No dinosaurs. Sadly, I can't include them. There are so many species that are just too big.
*'''Note on Transsexuals'''. This setting is intended as a mix of wish fulfillment and darker, more realistic consequences. That said, all TS folks get their bodies "corrected". Keep in mind that this won't necessarily make life easier for said character. Conflict generates Plot. And since most of the folks who get their gender switched ''won't'' be TS, there's still plenty of that around.
*Results of major surgeries are translated. Artificial hips, knees and pacemakers still work as needed. Transplant patients will not reject their organs. However, lost limbs will not regenerate and major chronic diseases will not be cured, but may go into a lengthy remission.
*One of the major benefits is a major improvement in health and fitness. ROB can't stop the change, but at least he can give the victims a sort of consolation prize. You may not end up in perfect shape, but it'll be close. A flood of positive endorphins to make the victim feel good about their new bodies doesn't hurt, either (optional). Now, what happens to that state of fitness ''after'' is entirely up to your characters.

===Psychology===
*At this point I'm inclined to have some mitigating effects on the "victims". It's still going to be very, very hard to deal with. This is a major life disruption. And there are no doubt a lot of secluded furs. But suicides aren't as common as you'd think.
*The transgendered furs do have an even rougher time. The double-whammy of species and gender would likely make serious post-change Issues a reality.
**Transgendered furs typically refer to themselves by their initials: BD, DL, etc..
**Some might end up going a little crazy and think they had ''always been'' their new gender, especially after the effects of Tall Tales Con.
*The more adjusted furs have figured out how to find these troubled souls and bring them back into the real world.

=={{separator|f|The Reality Distortion Field (Veil)}}==
*Humans can't see furries for what they are. They still see whatever the person looked like before, even if that person was the opposite gender.
*Some things aren't filtered correctly. Consequently...
**If a TGed man gets pregnant, the filter will change that person's ghost image to female. But she will still appear human to other humans.
**Things like hoof/paw prints, shed fur, shed antlers, clawmarks, animal odors, etc., are not filtered. So if a cougar morph gets in a fight with a normal human and lashes out with his claws, he could cause a hell of a lot of damage.
**Some humans think that there is something up (referred to as "Known" or "Friends"). And some have figured out that the friends who claim to be furry actually ''are'' what they claim to be.
*The RDF sometimes breaks down a little during large gatherings of furries (like at conventions). "Hey, that's the best costume I've ever seen! Is that a prosthetic muzzle?" Memories afterwards will probably remember some really good costumes, and photos will be perceived as such.
**In more extreme cases it will break down entirely. But it would take repeated exposures, or perhaps having a number of furry friends while remaining humans oneself. Like in [[User:Nikon/Changing_Perspectives|Changing Perspectives]].
**Transgendered furs may be perceived by humans as their new gender out of the corner of their eye. And there are likely other circumstances where the human RDF image will realign also. Specific circumstances (such as pregnancy) will be the decisive factor.
**As of 2007, TGed TallTales Con attendees have had a major RDF alteration. Everyone except family, friends, or people who have seen them often enough to really know, will perceive them as their new physical sex. Which is essentially the vast majority of people. This effect will spread to all the other TGed until 2008, when it becomes the norm.
**'''As of 2009''', all human ghosts now reflect their real gender, no matter who is looking.
*Do animals perceive the RDF? Probably not. But the odor of a fur is neither quite human or animal. There are still some common human pheromones, for example. Which is what makes romance between wolf and deer possible. This is a ''good'' thing, since it means that a doe-woman in heat won't be chased down by a normal buck.
*It may start to break down as there grow to be millions of furries in the world (see below).
*Another storytelling idea: The RDF is an ''antiviral measure'' (see The Cause below). When the RDF breaks down, people ''may'' change out-of-phase, since they no longer have that protection. This will make it harder to track down people who change and get them the help they need. This is ''not'' a hard-and-fast rule, but the storytelling device is available. But I '''don't''' want it to become commonplace.

==={{separator|f|Holes in the Veil}}===

As seen in [[User:JonBuck/After Hours|After Hours]], on August 29, 2009 the Veil started coming down.

*First one appeared in Hyannis, MA on August 29. It quickly expanded to (size to be determined) and outed every furry in town. Other holes appeared in and around Chicago. Without exception they appear first where there's been a recent or frequent concentration of furs.
*Holes start small, but will grow depending on how weak the RDF is in the area.
*As the RDF decays, furs will feel like they're wrapped in loose plastic. And there's something of a light show. The air shimmers. The air feels cleaner, fresher.
**The RDF is an extra "rendering layer" of sorts. Since until now all furs had lived with it, they only really notice it was there now that it's been taken away. Leaving a Hole a fur will feel like he or she is wearing clothing a size too small or too large, depending on how much they deviate from the human norm. A really sensitive fur might feel suffocated, as if they were wrapped in plastics. They'll feel irritable and given the right situation, may tear ''new'' Holes (which could make good story fodder).
*They're like soap bubbles in that if they encounter other holes, they'll grow even larger. All of them are still slowly expanding, and may jump to larger sizes at unpredictable intervals.
*ROB will start a controlled shutdown of the RDF over the course of the year. Its replacement will be a Weirdness Censor.
**The world is going furry crazy. But not ''crazy crazy''. Using a cooking analogy, it's like a foamed egg whites getting folded into a souffle or other dish that needs careful mixing, or the recipe falls apart.

*Furs feel much more comfortable with themselves inside the holes. To furs, the RDF feels like restrictive clothing. Doubly so for the TGed furs. Even normal humans feel better. Caveats:
**Normal humans who spend more and more time inside one of these holes run increasing risk of becoming furry at any time of the year ahead.
**Once the RDF is down completely in late 2010, the above may apply to everyone. The numbers are still doubling as below, but the August 17 restriction no longer applies. And as above, a TG can happen before a TF.
**Furries cease being humans in funny costumes. Their animal natures will more easily bob to the surface. This is partly for psychological reasons (don't have to hide any more). Partly due to the pressure from the RDF being gone.

=={{separator|f|The Numbers}}==

Total sequence as follows (all figures approximate):
Year AD Total Furries Total Populace Furries, as %age of total populace
1 1987 1 5,184,212,887 0.000 000 02%
2 1988 2 5,247,179,035 0.000 000 04%
3 1989 4 5,310,909,955 0.000 000 05%
4 1990 8 5,375,414,934 0.000 000 15%
5 1991 16 5,440,703,374 0.000 000 3%
6 1992 32 5,506,784,792 0.000 000 6%
7 1993 64 5,573,668,818 0.000 001 1%
8 1994 128 5,641,365,200 0.000 002%
9 1995 256 5,709,883,806 0.000 004%
10 1996 512 5,779,234,621 0.000 009%
11 1997 1,024 5,849,427,754 0.000 018%
12 1998 2,048 5,920,473,436 0.000 035%
13 1999 4,096 5,992,382,020 0.000 07%
14 2000 8,192 6,065,163,988 0.000 14%
15 2001 16,384 6,138,829,947 0.000 3%
16 2002 32,768 6,213,390,635 0.000 5%
17 2003 65,536 6,288,856,918 0.001%
18 2004 131,072 6,365,239,795 0.002%
19 2005 262,144 6,442,550,400 0.004%
20 2006 524,288 6,520,800,000 0.008%
21 2007 1,048,576 6,600,000,000 0.016%
22 2008 2,097,152 6,680,161,943 0.031%
23 2009 4,194,304 6,761,297,514 0.062%
24 2010 8,388,608 6,843,418,536 0.123%
25 2011 16,777,216 6,926,536,980 0.24%
26 2012 33,554,432 7,010,664,959 0.48%
27 2013 67,108,864 7,095,814,736 0.95%
28 2014 134,217,728 7,181,998,721 1.87%
29 2015 268,435,456 7,269,229,474 3.69%
30 2016 536,870,912 7,357,519,711 7.30%
31 2017 1,073,741,824 7,446,882,298 14.42%
32 2018 2,147,483,648 7,537,330,262 28.49%
33 2019 4,294,967,296 7,628,876,783 56.30%
34 2020 8,589,934,592 7,721,535,206 >100%

At this point stories should take place in '''2001 at the earliest''', up to the current story-time year. The community gets really, really small before then. If you have a story that takes place in this era, submit it to me first. Thank you.

Things should start to get really interesting around 2010. There's enough furs in the world then that niche markets would start to open up. More clothing and products specifically designed for furries start popping up. Also, it will become harder and harder to induct new furs into the group in a healthy manner. Society may start to break down in places.

It will take a concerted effort by those previously changed to keep everything under control...

'''Distribution.''' It's not random, or even. It's an expanding fractal centered on the Chicago area. As far as visualization, I'll leave that vague. But the majority of the first furs were in North America.

From the way these stories are playing out, I'd say that events are unfolding like this:

*'''1987-2002''': "Alone" period. Isolation between furries, with only a few very small groups, most of them thinking they're all alone. Best exemplified by [[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat's]] stories. Nobody knows what's going on.
*'''2002-2008''': Forming Communities. There's now enough furs to start encountering each other regularly. Conventions start up. Anthro imagery (in movies, TV shows, and other media) start to show up more frequently. Information getting put together indicates an ominous trend. The whole world will eventually go furry.
*'''2008-?''': Events unfolding in [[User:JonBuck/Open Secrets|Open Secrets]] will nail down this theme. {{add|From here for the next few years, a third to nearly a half of the new Changed will be Known/Friends or family members. People who can see through the Veil easily.}}

===Important Events===
This section will be for events of note that will be important to the overall storytelling. Authors feel free to note important events in your works that could impact the setting as a whole here.

'''2007'''
*First instances of total, permanent [[User:Nikon/Changing Perspectives|RDF breakdown]]. Incidents isolated.
*First appearance of anthro dolphins. The RDF with these people is a very strained affair. The longer they stay around humans, the more likely it'll fail. Perhaps it realigns the image as a normal dolphin in the water, and a human on land.
*'''Added 2/24.''' Transgendered furs at [[User:JonBuck/Tall Tales|Tall Tales Con]] now appear as their new physical gender to anyone but close friends and family. The RDF is even actively changing identification. Active records like passports and driver's licenses, medical records are all altered to reflect this. Even a pre-Change photo ID will show the new human face, which will be a shock to the TGed fur. This effect is slowly spreading to other TGed furs, see [[User:Jetfire/Doing Hard Time|Doing Hard Time]].
*A number of pressing environmental problems relax slightly. While these solutions will solve some problems, they will cause others, especially in the short term.
**The recovery of the major world fisheries detected in the mid-90s continues apace.
**Major discoveries in energy include massive oilfields in various stable First World nations: US, Canada, UK, Norway, etc..
**Scientists observe CO2 levels stabilizing for currently unknown reasons.
**Third World experiences boosts in food production from improved farming practices and soil conditions.
**New renewable energy discoveries, new batteries, a bacterial process for making gasoline and diesel from municipal wastewater.
*With all these new furs, there are now enough singles to start pairing up. The lingering worries about fertility and children will be answered next year...

'''2008'''
*Fallout from Tall Tales Con continues. All newbie and furry gatherings the next year will be much, much smaller, informal.
*Although there were a few before this year, this is the first year a large number of furry babies will be born.
*A Changed rabbit appears as ''Playboy'''s September Playmate of the Month (though only other Changed/Changed-sensitive know it until later).

'''2009'''
*This Change Day will be different from the others. Instead of all happening in the same moment, the new furs will happen in fits and starts throughout the day. Some might change in the early morning, others late that night. The trend will continue over the next few years.
**Another wrinkle. If there's a TG, they don't have to happen at the same time. So some poor fellow who becomes a clouded leopard in the morning (or a woman) will get hit again sometime later.
* The shoe field died in 2008. Now the Veil no longer hides clothing modifications. For some furs this might be a Veil-breaker. We will see.
*Since [[User:JonBuck/Open Secrets|Open Secrets]], the secret is functionally out, though a sort of [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WeirdnessCensor Weirdness Censor] is in place, possibly due to widespread denial. Furry imagery started to dominate the media after the first of the year, especially on medical dramas and "what if" shows on National Geographic, Discovery Channel, even the Food Network. Mostly done with CGI, a few shows used furry actors and cameras able to see through the Veil. More to be revealed in [[User:JonBuck/After Hours|After Hours]].
* '''The Shutdown''', August 17-25. With a major Sleeping Sickness outbreak, much of the world economy shut down for a little over a week, with only essential services (energy, food transport, etc.) kept running. Similar to what Mexico did during the Swine Flu outbreak. Later they are accused of overreacting, as Sleeping Sickness seems to leave a minuscule number of deaths, and the victims healthier than before they contracted it.

'''2010'''
*Tiffany Tanner appears as the first Changed to play a Changed in a recurring role on daytime television. With the aid of a special lens, Tiffany's character "Felice Hunter" on ''One Life to Live'' dramatizes the plight of Changed forced to keep secrets from family and friends. Her stint on the show is briefly interrupted when she is kidnapped for several weeks, after which she again makes headlines as one of "Melton's Eleven," eleven furres who had been kidnapped for the private amusement of a twisted, reclusive millionaire (who vanished shortly before they escaped).

=={{separator|f|The Cause}}==

So, why is this happening? What's causing it? A nanotech virus? Microscopic magic pixies? The return of magic? The wrath of God? What?

The answer is contained in '''[[User:JonBuck/Tall Tales|Tall Tales]]'''.

However, the idea is this. Ever since I read [http://www.accelerando.org/ ''Accelerando''] By Charles Stross, I've been enamored with the idea of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity technological Singularity]. So I've been looking for a way to use it in my fiction at one point. This setting provides the answer to that desire. ''Accelerando'' is available for free on the web.

Our universe--or perhaps just our planet, I haven't decided yet--and all the people in it, are basically a simulation. This doesn't make the characters in these stories any less real than you our I. Mathematics forms the basis of the universe, after all. The people are as sentient as you or I. This makes the setting rather Matrix-like, without the human bodies being used as "batteries". We're all more like Agent Smith.

I refer to this as a "furry virus". It comes from outside the post-Singularity brain, and is slightly more advanced than "ours". What's happening is this bit of malicious code (sentient, no less, but on a level far beyond our ability to comprehend it) is messing up the simulated world we reside in. Why? I dunno. One of those inscrutable things. The RDF is an antiviral measure to contain the damage and allow the society within to adapt. This is also why so far, furry species are limited to mammals. As the numbers of furs increase, that ''will'' change. I have yet to decide just when.

Why not just scrap the whole thing and restore from backup? There are no backups because the simulated people are nevertheless living beings. And they can't just be wiped out.

I hope that explanation isn't too confusing. Please let me know on the '''[[Talk:Paradise (Setting)|Talk Page]]''' if you have questions.

=={{separator|f|Notes on Avatars}}==
So far, the convention for avatars in this setting is for writers to use the first initials of first and last names. However, I wanted to note that my intent here is to give the writer more freedom than to base these characters on yourself. I've changed a lot of details about Jerome, for instance. If you want to put your avatar--if you decide to use one--into this setting, go crazy. Give them a challenge (worse job, emotional trouble). Or make them better off and have the change cause a lot of trouble with work/family/whatever. What I'm trying to say here is, don't feel you have to be directly limited by your present or past self. ''Have fun.''

=={{separator|f|Important Cast}}==

'''[[Paradise Cast List]]'''

Since this is a wiki, that means everyone can edit it. Authors who want to put names and short bios of the characters in their stories, just in case someone else wants to use them for a cameo. With the characters, please list the stories that they appear in. Please put your cast members on the linked cast page. Thank you.

[[Category:Paradise]]

User:Chessrook44/Unforseen Changes

2011-02-06T14:34:11Z

Chessrook44: Created page with '== Lister's Tales 1: Unforseen Changes == '''August 14th, 2005''' “Here you are sir, have a nice day,” I said, handing the card to the customer in front of me before sitti…'

User:Chessrook44

2011-02-06T14:24:54Z

Chessrook44: Created page with 'So yeah, um... not much to say here, I don't use Wikis much (like, at all) so this'll probably look very newbish and I should stop talking about it like this and GAHENOUGH!!!! A…'

Paradise (Setting)

2011-01-10T13:36:59Z

Chessrook44: Moving Story list to top of page (Instead of bottom) and adding author names after stories (Much like pre-data-loss state)

{{Universe|Paradise}}

{{byline|author=Jon Buck
|user=JonBuck}}

A direct link '''[[User:JonBuck/A Kind of Paradise|To the original story.]]'''

=={{separator|f|Stories in Chronological Order}}==

Authors may add links to their stories as they happen in chronological order in story time. For a complete listing of all Paradise stories, since this list may be updated sporadically, see [[:Category:Paradise|the Paradise Category]].

'''2000'''
*[[User:Erastus/On the Outside Looking|On the Outside, Looking...]] ''(Through 2010) (Erastus)''

'''2001'''
*[[Ranty Raccoon]]

'''2002'''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Made Alone|Made Alone]] ''(MatthiasRat)''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Bathing Alone|Bathing Alone]] ''(MatthiasRat)''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Not Quite Alone|Not Quite Alone]] ''(MatthiasRat)''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Suspected Alone|Suspected Alone]] ''(MatthiasRat)''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Revealing Alone|Revealing Alone]] ''(MatthiasRat)''

'''2003'''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Convention Building|Convention Building]] ''(MatthiasRat)''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Model Building | Model Building]] ''(MatthiasRat)''
*[[User:MatthiasRat/Change Building | Change Building]] ''(MatthiasRat)''

'''2005'''
*[[User:Jetfire/Holes in the Veil| Holes in the Veil]] ''(Jetfire)''
*[[User:Robotech_Master/Capsule_Review:_Changed:_The_Unveiling|RPG.net Capsule Review: Changed: The Unveiling]]
*[[User:Jetfire/Lifting The Veil| Lifting The Veil]] ''(Jetfire)''
*[[User:Jetfire/Poking the Veil| Poking the Veil]] ''(Jetfire)''
*[[User:Eirik/Stages|Stages]] ''(Through October 2006) (Eirik)''

'''2006'''
*[[User:Jetfire/Film at 2011| Film at 2011]] ''(Jetfire)''
*[[User:Jetfire/GM'O'Fur| GM'O'Fur]] ''(Jetfire)''
*[[User:Jetfire/Twisting the Veil| Twisting the Veil]] ''(Jetfire)''
*[[User:Jetfire/Silver Fox Tracks|Silver Fox Tracks]] ''(Jetfire)''
*[[User:Jetfire/Generations| Generations]] ''(Jetfire)''
*[[User:Jetfire/A Rolling Stone Gathers No Veil|A Rolling Stone Gathers No Veil]] ''(Jetfire)''
*[[User:Jetfire/Auld Lang Syne|Auld Lang Syne]] (Extends into 2007) ''(Jetfire)''
*[[User:Eirik/Reverberations|Reverberations]] ''(Eirik)''
*[[User:Eirik/Bare Hands|Bare Hands]] ''(Eirik)''

'''2007'''
*[[User:Eirik/Treatment|Treatment]] ''(Eirik)''
*[[User:Jetfire/It Bears Investigation|It Bears Investigation]] ''(Jetfire)''
*[[User:Jetfire/Gaming Furs|Gaming Furs]] ''(Jetfire)''
*[[User:JonBuck/A Kind of Paradise|A Kind of Paradise]] ''(JohnBuck)''
*[[User:Jetfire/Radio No Veil|Radio No Veil]] ''(Jetfire)''
*[[User:Jetfire/Six Furries and a Wedding|Six Furries and a Wedding]] ''(Jetfire)''
*[[User:JonBuck/Tall Tales|Tall Tales]] ''(JohnBuck)''
*[[User:Nikon/Changing Perspectives|Changing Perspectives]] ''(Nikon)''
*[[User:Nikon/Back to Reality|Back to Reality]] ''(Nikon)''
*[[User:Jetfire/Clearing the Air|Clearing the Air]] ''(Jetfire)''
*[[User:Eirik/Waters_So_Cold_and_Deep|Waters So Cold and Deep]] ''(Eirik)''
*[[User:Jetfire/Doing Hard Time|Doing Hard Time]] (Extends into 2008) ''(Jetfire)''
*[[Monkey Business]]
*[[User:Nikon/Coming Home|Coming Home]] (guess based on posting date) ''(Nikon)''

'''2008'''
*[[User:Jetfire/Live_At_Five|Live At Five]] ''(Jetfire)''
*[[User:Jetfire/Rising Waters|Rising Waters]] ''(Jetfire)''
*[[User:Jetfire/Gulf_Ice|Gulf Ice]] (Prelude in 2001) ''(Jetfire)''
*[[User:Jetfire/The_Bear_Facts|The Bear Facts]] ''(Jetfire)''
*[[User:Jetfire/Election Fever|Election Fever]] ''(Jetfire)''
*[[User:Eirik/Centers of Power|Centers of Power]] ''(Eirik)''
*[[User:JonBuck/Open Secrets|Open Secrets]] ''(JohnBuck)''
*[[User:WolfyDrake95/New_World|New World]] ''(WolfyDrake95)''
*[[User:Jetfire/Special Care|Special Care]] ''(Jetfire)''
*[[User:Jetfire/NorBAC|NorBAC]] (begins in June; jumps to September) ''(Jetfire)''
*[[User:Jetfire/Judge_Judy:_Deagle_vs_Anderson|Judge Judy: Deagle vs Anderson]] (2008 or 2009) ''(Jetfire)''

'''2009'''
*[[User:JonBuck/After Hours|After Hours]] ''(JohnBuck)''

'''2010'''
*[[User:JonBuck/Changing America|Changing America]] (work in progress) ''(JohnBuck)''
*[[User:Robotech_Master/See Change: March 20, 2010|See Change: March 20, 2010]] ''(Robotech_Master)''
*[[User:Robotech_Master/Tiffnapped|Tiffnapped]] ''(Robotech_Master)''
*[[User:Robotech_Master/Holding Helena|Holding Helena]] ''(Robotech_Master)''

'''Alternate Future'''
*[[Cascade Failure]]

=={{separator|f|Basics}}==
*The setting is basically indistinguishable from the Real World up until 1987, the year when people first begin to spontaneously transform into furries.
*Exactly one person transformed in Year One ''(i.e.,'' 1987), and the number of furries doubles in late August each year. The initial story in this setting, [[User:JonBuck/A Kind of Paradise|A Kind of Paradise]], is set in Year 21 ''(i.e.,'' 2007), when there are just over one million furries. The next year (2008) will add a million, for a total of two megafurries, and so forth.
*The first furry in 1987 was a vixen, with a tod the next year. Some stereotypes do have a basis in "reality". :)
**The entire world will be furry in 2020.
*Every year it's possible that an already-changed person could change ''again''. With increasing rarity, all less than one percent:
**A species change. ("What the..? I'm a ''wolf'' now? What am I supposed to do with all these hoof picks?")
**A gender change. ("Where do men put this ''thing'' between our legs when we sit down?")
**A combination of both. ("Don't ''even'' call me a bitch! Just show me how to put on this stupid bra!")
**The next year there is about a 25% chance that the person will revert to their original gender/first species. If that doesn't happen, it's fixed. If they change back... there's another 25% chance that you'll bounce back ''again'' the next year. So there's some potential for characters who spend years alternating between species/gender.
*Also distinctive from Winds of Change: ''No superpowers''. Just whatever natural abilities (things like augmented senses, physical strength, ''etc)'' come from being half animal.
*'''The Role Reversal Paradox.'''
**''IF'' the couple has children, pre- or post-Change, no matter what age...
**''IF'' one of the couple has been transgendered...
**''THEN'' it is essentially a sure thing that the partner will TG as well.
**The reason for this is simple. ROB hates paradoxes. If they have children, there ''must'' be a father and a mother. And it ''must'' be the same two people. It doesn't matter if that person divorced and remarried someone else. Or if they're unmarried. One father, one mother. Otherwise, the kids will logically not have come into existence.
**Conversely, if they are married/going out/living together/etc., the same TG 1% dice roll applies to them as everyone else.

'''Important.''' Please ''do not'' write stories that are father ahead in the timeline than those I have written.''

'''Note on Politics'''. As a request, I ask authors not to use major political figures from Real Life. I don't want any political bashing going on here. Characters like Congressman Sandrick are perfectly fine, so feel free to create fictional members of Congress or Members of Parliament. Remember this world is different from ours from 1987 onwards. There are still details I haven't filled in between then and now, and the Butterfly Effect means that there will be some small, some major differences.

{{add|'''Winners of the 2008 Election'''}}
*President: Karen Hutchinson. (Reverse Pres. Obama and his wife, basically)
*VP: Steven Angstrom

===The Transgendered===
Just a few details.
#This is an earlier, generally harmless virus that got into the simulation. ROB dealt with it by the "history editing" as described in the stories.
#It's been around a LOT longer than the Furry Virus.
#Even though it's probably been around for thousands of years, there are far fewer victims than the Furry Virus as of 2009. I imagine the furry virus co-opted this one for the TGed furs.
#As in real life, there are many more male to female victims than the other way around.
#Transgendered victims have little or no support system like furries do. They're generally isolated. And before 2009 couldn't see through the RDF.

===Physiology===

*Furries can still interbreed with one another as if they were all still human. Children get a 50/50 chance of which of the parents' species they follow.
*Conversely, humans '''cannot''' interbreed with furries, probably due to the RDF.
*There are some physical variations, but not the wide "Degrees" that Winds of Change has. The most obvious differences are hair, feet, and hands. Otherwise, most everyone is about as morphic as seen in common furry art.
**Females most often have hair the same color and similar texture as their fur. Though you do still get the occasional blond.
**Males retain their hair less frequently.
*'''Size Limitations.''' On the suggestion from the Talk page. I'm not going to limit species. However, I will have a minimum/maximum size range:
**7 feet (or 2.1m), max. About 600 lb (272 kg), max.
**4 feet (1.2m). I'll leave the small side open.
*Species are native to a particular continent. So most people in North America will end up whitetail deer, elk, bears, foxes, wolves, etc. Recent immigrants will more likely end up native species to wherever they came from.
**However, this means that someone from Seattle could ''still'' end up a leopard, or a llama, or what-have-you from other continents. I just want to make that clear.
**No mythicals like dragons, griffins, satyrs, vampires, mages, what-have-you. Just furries.
**No birds, reptiles, or other non-mammals.
*'''No Extinct Species.''' No dinosaurs. Sadly, I can't include them. There are so many species that are just too big.
*'''Note on Transsexuals'''. This setting is intended as a mix of wish fulfillment and darker, more realistic consequences. That said, all TS folks get their bodies "corrected". Keep in mind that this won't necessarily make life easier for said character. Conflict generates Plot. And since most of the folks who get their gender switched ''won't'' be TS, there's still plenty of that around.
*Results of major surgeries are translated. Artificial hips, knees and pacemakers still work as needed. Transplant patients will not reject their organs. However, lost limbs will not regenerate and major chronic diseases will not be cured, but may go into a lengthy remission.
*One of the major benefits is a major improvement in health and fitness. ROB can't stop the change, but at least he can give the victims a sort of consolation prize. You may not end up in perfect shape, but it'll be close. A flood of positive endorphins to make the victim feel good about their new bodies doesn't hurt, either (optional). Now, what happens to that state of fitness ''after'' is entirely up to your characters.

===Psychology===
*At this point I'm inclined to have some mitigating effects on the "victims". It's still going to be very, very hard to deal with. This is a major life disruption. And there are no doubt a lot of secluded furs. But suicides aren't as common as you'd think.
*The transgendered furs do have an even rougher time. The double-whammy of species and gender would likely make serious post-change Issues a reality.
**Transgendered furs typically refer to themselves by their initials: BD, DL, etc..
**Some might end up going a little crazy and think they had ''always been'' their new gender, especially after the effects of Tall Tales Con.
*The more adjusted furs have figured out how to find these troubled souls and bring them back into the real world.

=={{separator|f|The Reality Distortion Field (Veil)}}==
*Humans can't see furries for what they are. They still see whatever the person looked like before, even if that person was the opposite gender.
*Some things aren't filtered correctly. Consequently...
**If a TGed man gets pregnant, the filter will change that person's ghost image to female. But she will still appear human to other humans.
**Things like hoof/paw prints, shed fur, shed antlers, clawmarks, animal odors, etc., are not filtered. So if a cougar morph gets in a fight with a normal human and lashes out with his claws, he could cause a hell of a lot of damage.
**Some humans think that there is something up (referred to as "Known" or "Friends"). And some have figured out that the friends who claim to be furry actually ''are'' what they claim to be.
*The RDF sometimes breaks down a little during large gatherings of furries (like at conventions). "Hey, that's the best costume I've ever seen! Is that a prosthetic muzzle?" Memories afterwards will probably remember some really good costumes, and photos will be perceived as such.
**In more extreme cases it will break down entirely. But it would take repeated exposures, or perhaps having a number of furry friends while remaining humans oneself. Like in [[User:Nikon/Changing_Perspectives|Changing Perspectives]].
**Transgendered furs may be perceived by humans as their new gender out of the corner of their eye. And there are likely other circumstances where the human RDF image will realign also. Specific circumstances (such as pregnancy) will be the decisive factor.
**As of 2007, TGed TallTales Con attendees have had a major RDF alteration. Everyone except family, friends, or people who have seen them often enough to really know, will perceive them as their new physical sex. Which is essentially the vast majority of people. This effect will spread to all the other TGed until 2008, when it becomes the norm.
**'''As of 2009''', all human ghosts now reflect their real gender, no matter who is looking.
*Do animals perceive the RDF? Probably not. But the odor of a fur is neither quite human or animal. There are still some common human pheromones, for example. Which is what makes romance between wolf and deer possible. This is a ''good'' thing, since it means that a doe-woman in heat won't be chased down by a normal buck.
*It may start to break down as there grow to be millions of furries in the world (see below).
*Another storytelling idea: The RDF is an ''antiviral measure'' (see The Cause below). When the RDF breaks down, people ''may'' change out-of-phase, since they no longer have that protection. This will make it harder to track down people who change and get them the help they need. This is ''not'' a hard-and-fast rule, but the storytelling device is available. But I '''don't''' want it to become commonplace.

==={{separator|f|Holes in the Veil}}===

As seen in [[User:JonBuck/After Hours|After Hours]], on August 29, 2009 the Veil started coming down.

*First one appeared in Hyannis, MA on August 29. It quickly expanded to (size to be determined) and outed every furry in town. Other holes appeared in and around Chicago. Without exception they appear first where there's been a recent or frequent concentration of furs.
*Holes start small, but will grow depending on how weak the RDF is in the area.
*As the RDF decays, furs will feel like they're wrapped in loose plastic. And there's something of a light show. The air shimmers. The air feels cleaner, fresher.
**The RDF is an extra "rendering layer" of sorts. Since until now all furs had lived with it, they only really notice it was there now that it's been taken away. Leaving a Hole a fur will feel like he or she is wearing clothing a size too small or too large, depending on how much they deviate from the human norm. A really sensitive fur might feel suffocated, as if they were wrapped in plastics. They'll feel irritable and given the right situation, may tear ''new'' Holes (which could make good story fodder).
*They're like soap bubbles in that if they encounter other holes, they'll grow even larger. All of them are still slowly expanding, and may jump to larger sizes at unpredictable intervals.
*ROB will start a controlled shutdown of the RDF over the course of the year. Its replacement will be a Weirdness Censor.
**The world is going furry crazy. But not ''crazy crazy''. Using a cooking analogy, it's like a foamed egg whites getting folded into a souffle or other dish that needs careful mixing, or the recipe falls apart.

*Furs feel much more comfortable with themselves inside the holes. To furs, the RDF feels like restrictive clothing. Doubly so for the TGed furs. Even normal humans feel better. Caveats:
**Normal humans who spend more and more time inside one of these holes run increasing risk of becoming furry at any time of the year ahead.
**Once the RDF is down completely in late 2010, the above may apply to everyone. The numbers are still doubling as below, but the August 17 restriction no longer applies. And as above, a TG can happen before a TF.
**Furries cease being humans in funny costumes. Their animal natures will more easily bob to the surface. This is partly for psychological reasons (don't have to hide any more). Partly due to the pressure from the RDF being gone.

=={{separator|f|The Numbers}}==

Total sequence as follows (all figures approximate):
Year AD Total Furries Total Populace Furries, as %age of total populace
1 1987 1 5,184,212,887 0.000 000 02%
2 1988 2 5,247,179,035 0.000 000 04%
3 1989 4 5,310,909,955 0.000 000 05%
4 1990 8 5,375,414,934 0.000 000 15%
5 1991 16 5,440,703,374 0.000 000 3%
6 1992 32 5,506,784,792 0.000 000 6%
7 1993 64 5,573,668,818 0.000 001 1%
8 1994 128 5,641,365,200 0.000 002%
9 1995 256 5,709,883,806 0.000 004%
10 1996 512 5,779,234,621 0.000 009%
11 1997 1,024 5,849,427,754 0.000 018%
12 1998 2,048 5,920,473,436 0.000 035%
13 1999 4,096 5,992,382,020 0.000 07%
14 2000 8,192 6,065,163,988 0.000 14%
15 2001 16,384 6,138,829,947 0.000 3%
16 2002 32,768 6,213,390,635 0.000 5%
17 2003 65,536 6,288,856,918 0.001%
18 2004 131,072 6,365,239,795 0.002%
19 2005 262,144 6,442,550,400 0.004%
20 2006 524,288 6,520,800,000 0.008%
21 2007 1,048,576 6,600,000,000 0.016%
22 2008 2,097,152 6,680,161,943 0.031%
23 2009 4,194,304 6,761,297,514 0.062%
24 2010 8,388,608 6,843,418,536 0.123%
25 2011 16,777,216 6,926,536,980 0.24%
26 2012 33,554,432 7,010,664,959 0.48%
27 2013 67,108,864 7,095,814,736 0.95%
28 2014 134,217,728 7,181,998,721 1.87%
29 2015 268,435,456 7,269,229,474 3.69%
30 2016 536,870,912 7,357,519,711 7.30%
31 2017 1,073,741,824 7,446,882,298 14.42%
32 2018 2,147,483,648 7,537,330,262 28.49%
33 2019 4,294,967,296 7,628,876,783 56.30%
34 2020 8,589,934,592 7,721,535,206 >100%

At this point stories should take place in '''2001 at the earliest''', up to the current story-time year. The community gets really, really small before then. If you have a story that takes place in this era, submit it to me first. Thank you.

Things should start to get really interesting around 2010. There's enough furs in the world then that niche markets would start to open up. More clothing and products specifically designed for furries start popping up. Also, it will become harder and harder to induct new furs into the group in a healthy manner. Society may start to break down in places.

It will take a concerted effort by those previously changed to keep everything under control...

'''Distribution.''' It's not random, or even. It's an expanding fractal centered on the Chicago area. As far as visualization, I'll leave that vague. But the majority of the first furs were in North America.

From the way these stories are playing out, I'd say that events are unfolding like this:

*'''1987-2002''': "Alone" period. Isolation between furries, with only a few very small groups, most of them thinking they're all alone. Best exemplified by [[User:MatthiasRat|MatthiasRat's]] stories. Nobody knows what's going on.
*'''2002-2008''': Forming Communities. There's now enough furs to start encountering each other regularly. Conventions start up. Anthro imagery (in movies, TV shows, and other media) start to show up more frequently. Information getting put together indicates an ominous trend. The whole world will eventually go furry.
*'''2008-?''': Events unfolding in [[User:JonBuck/Open Secrets|Open Secrets]] will nail down this theme. {{add|From here for the next few years, a third to nearly a half of the new Changed will be Known/Friends or family members. People who can see through the Veil easily.}}

===Important Events===
This section will be for events of note that will be important to the overall storytelling. Authors feel free to note important events in your works that could impact the setting as a whole here.

'''2007'''
*First instances of total, permanent [[User:Nikon/Changing Perspectives|RDF breakdown]]. Incidents isolated.
*First appearance of anthro dolphins. The RDF with these people is a very strained affair. The longer they stay around humans, the more likely it'll fail. Perhaps it realigns the image as a normal dolphin in the water, and a human on land.
*'''Added 2/24.''' Transgendered furs at [[User:JonBuck/Tall Tales|Tall Tales Con]] now appear as their new physical gender to anyone but close friends and family. The RDF is even actively changing identification. Active records like passports and driver's licenses, medical records are all altered to reflect this. Even a pre-Change photo ID will show the new human face, which will be a shock to the TGed fur. This effect is slowly spreading to other TGed furs, see [[User:Jetfire/Doing Hard Time|Doing Hard Time]].
*A number of pressing environmental problems relax slightly. While these solutions will solve some problems, they will cause others, especially in the short term.
**The recovery of the major world fisheries detected in the mid-90s continues apace.
**Major discoveries in energy include massive oilfields in various stable First World nations: US, Canada, UK, Norway, etc..
**Scientists observe CO2 levels stabilizing for currently unknown reasons.
**Third World experiences boosts in food production from improved farming practices and soil conditions.
**New renewable energy discoveries, new batteries, a bacterial process for making gasoline and diesel from municipal wastewater.
*With all these new furs, there are now enough singles to start pairing up. The lingering worries about fertility and children will be answered next year...

'''2008'''
*Fallout from Tall Tales Con continues. All newbie and furry gatherings the next year will be much, much smaller, informal.
*Although there were a few before this year, this is the first year a large number of furry babies will be born.
*A Changed rabbit appears as ''Playboy'''s September Playmate of the Month (though only other Changed/Changed-sensitive know it until later).

'''2009'''
*This Change Day will be different from the others. Instead of all happening in the same moment, the new furs will happen in fits and starts throughout the day. Some might change in the early morning, others late that night. The trend will continue over the next few years.
**Another wrinkle. If there's a TG, they don't have to happen at the same time. So some poor fellow who becomes a clouded leopard in the morning (or a woman) will get hit again sometime later.
* The shoe field died in 2008. Now the Veil no longer hides clothing modifications. For some furs this might be a Veil-breaker. We will see.
*Since [[User:JonBuck/Open Secrets|Open Secrets]], the secret is functionally out, though a sort of [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WeirdnessCensor Weirdness Censor] is in place, possibly due to widespread denial. Furry imagery started to dominate the media after the first of the year, especially on medical dramas and "what if" shows on National Geographic, Discovery Channel, even the Food Network. Mostly done with CGI, a few shows used furry actors and cameras able to see through the Veil. More to be revealed in [[User:JonBuck/After Hours|After Hours]].
* '''The Shutdown''', August 17-25. With a major Sleeping Sickness outbreak, much of the world economy shut down for a little over a week, with only essential services (energy, food transport, etc.) kept running. Similar to what Mexico did during the Swine Flu outbreak. Later they are accused of overreacting, as Sleeping Sickness seems to leave a minuscule number of deaths, and the victims healthier than before they contracted it.

'''2010'''
*Tiffany Tanner appears as the first Changed to play a Changed in a recurring role on daytime television. With the aid of a special lens, Tiffany's character "Felice Hunter" on ''One Life to Live'' dramatizes the plight of Changed forced to keep secrets from family and friends. Her stint on the show is briefly interrupted when she is kidnapped for several weeks, after which she again makes headlines as one of "Melton's Eleven," eleven furres who had been kidnapped for the private amusement of a twisted, reclusive millionaire (who vanished shortly before they escaped).

=={{separator|f|The Cause}}==

So, why is this happening? What's causing it? A nanotech virus? Microscopic magic pixies? The return of magic? The wrath of God? What?

The answer is contained in '''[[User:JonBuck/Tall Tales|Tall Tales]]'''.

However, the idea is this. Ever since I read [http://www.accelerando.org/ ''Accelerando''] By Charles Stross, I've been enamored with the idea of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity technological Singularity]. So I've been looking for a way to use it in my fiction at one point. This setting provides the answer to that desire. ''Accelerando'' is available for free on the web.

Our universe--or perhaps just our planet, I haven't decided yet--and all the people in it, are basically a simulation. This doesn't make the characters in these stories any less real than you our I. Mathematics forms the basis of the universe, after all. The people are as sentient as you or I. This makes the setting rather Matrix-like, without the human bodies being used as "batteries". We're all more like Agent Smith.

I refer to this as a "furry virus". It comes from outside the post-Singularity brain, and is slightly more advanced than "ours". What's happening is this bit of malicious code (sentient, no less, but on a level far beyond our ability to comprehend it) is messing up the simulated world we reside in. Why? I dunno. One of those inscrutable things. The RDF is an antiviral measure to contain the damage and allow the society within to adapt. This is also why so far, furry species are limited to mammals. As the numbers of furs increase, that ''will'' change. I have yet to decide just when.

Why not just scrap the whole thing and restore from backup? There are no backups because the simulated people are nevertheless living beings. And they can't just be wiped out.

I hope that explanation isn't too confusing. Please let me know on the '''[[Talk:Paradise (Setting)|Talk Page]]''' if you have questions.

=={{separator|f|Notes on Avatars}}==
So far, the convention for avatars in this setting is for writers to use the first initials of first and last names. However, I wanted to note that my intent here is to give the writer more freedom than to base these characters on yourself. I've changed a lot of details about Jerome, for instance. If you want to put your avatar--if you decide to use one--into this setting, go crazy. Give them a challenge (worse job, emotional trouble). Or make them better off and have the change cause a lot of trouble with work/family/whatever. What I'm trying to say here is, don't feel you have to be directly limited by your present or past self. ''Have fun.''

=={{separator|f|Important Cast}}==

'''[[Paradise Cast List]]'''

Since this is a wiki, that means everyone can edit it. Authors who want to put names and short bios of the characters in their stories, just in case someone else wants to use them for a cameo. With the characters, please list the stories that they appear in. Please put your cast members on the linked cast page. Thank you.

[[Category:Paradise]]