Might I ask some questions about the Nekovalkyrja?

[Sanderford]

I have a few questions about the Nekovalkyrja, based on this line.

"Nekovalkyrja are all female, at least physically. It is possible for a man's mind to be transferred into a Nekovalkyrja body."

My questions are as follows.

I. How often is a man's mind transferred into a Nekovalkyrja body?

II. How does a man apply for this process?

III. How many men request such an operation yearly, on average?

IV. Are compulsory transfers legally possible? In other words, can an individual be required to be moved to a Nekovalkyrja physical form? If so, who gives the order, and in what circumstances?

VI. Does the average yearly quantity of people whose minds are transferred to Nekovalkyrja bodies increase during war, or times of national emergency?

VII. If a man, or indeed any person, is to be transferred to a Nekovalkyrja body, do they have any say in the body's appearance?

VIII. Is a person whose mind has been transferred to a Nekovalkyrja body seen any differently by Neko who were made from scratch? Are they viewed as being inferior, for example?

 

[Nashoba]

1 - Pretty much doesn't happen.

2 - If a male wanted to, they would just have to request a body transfer, but they would need to be in the service and have enough time to pay off the transfer.

3 - In the time I've been here, Zero ICly.

4 - As explained to me a while back, a Starship captain can technically order a soldier to upgrade to a better body for the good of their ship. Such an order would if it were to occur be dealing with say a pure human (Nepleslian). But again, I'm not aware of anyone actually doing this.

5 - Typically if someone was going to upgrade, they would be female citizens who want to serve and choose to upgrade from say an NH-22C to an NH-29. So it is conceivable that in wartime there would be an increase, but there are also plenty of soldiers who opt to stay in their original bodies.

6 - Technically anyone having a body transfer has a say in the appearance that they want.

7 - Neko's wouldn't care one way or another if someone upgraded to a NH-29. There might be some civilians family and friends of the person per say who wonders why they would want to become a 'weapon' as some NH-29's are perceived.

You have to realize one thing, technically while a Nekovalkyjra is female in appearance, it would be more correct to say that they are parthenogenic. After all they do not need a male to reproduce.

 

[Sanderford]

I see. So basically, it doesn't happen often enough to be mentioned, but it could happen, at least in theory.

If a man wants to undergo such a procedure, he first needs to enlist, request the transfer, and request it with enough enlisment time left to be able to pay it back.

Technically speaking at least, he would then have some say in what his new body looked like.

Neko generally don't give a rip where a fellow Neko comes from, but it is possible that the man's relatives and friends would view it oddly.

Did I get all that right?

 

[Nashoba]

Pretty much, after all, Son walks into home, "Hi mom & dad, I'm joining the military. Oh, and I'm going to become a female."

"Parents, ah dear... perhaps we should talk about this...."

 

[Sanderford]

Hmmm. Well, the main reasons I asked were curiosity, of course, but mainly because I'm really planning out a possible new character, and he is a Nepleslian by birth, but, his back story leads up to him being upgraded to Neko form.

I'd give you more details, but I'm not entirely sure myself, at this stage in the creative processes.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Wes]

In response to OP:

1. Men occasionally transfer into Nekovalkyrja bodies. I imagine about 1 in every 100 "conversion" nekos were males at some point. However, it's important to note that the vast majority of Nekovalkyrja were created as Nekovalkyrja of some sort.

2. Transferring to a Nekovalkyrja body is free if you're in the Star Army. It's available by request in pretty much any medical facility. The Star Army prefers Neko bodies for soldiers.

3. Most males go with male Yamataian bodies but I imagine several thousand go with a Nekovalkyrja body.

4. A transfer to a Nekovalkyrja body is fully legal for currently serving members of the Star Army of Yamatai. It is not available to civilians, though (they have Yamataian bodies available though). Occasionally males get put into Nekovalkyrja bodies (at least temporarily) to save their life if it's the only type available in a medical bay.

5. What happened to question 5?

6. The amount of transfers does increase in wartime, but the amount of non-conversion Nekos produced increases much more.

7. Appearance is fully customizable within the limits of the Nekovalkyrja form. An NH-27 could even look fully male. An NH-29 could be made to look more androgynous if desired.

8. Going from a conventional mind to a digital one takes time to grow into, so they may be considered a "newbie" of sorts at first. However many people believe that a real childhood makes people more rounded and more creative. There's no strong preference either way.

 

[Sanderford]

5. What happened to question 5?

There is no Question 5!

...

I made a typo.

 

[Doshii Jun]

We have a Samurai, Sumaru, who is a male in Neko form. Though he's found some acceptance among his fellow Samurai, he still is treated as a oddity, if not an abomination.

The men who get into Neko bodies, at least how we've treated canon so far, are treated as extremely strange by natural Neko. That's because they essentially are switching species (despite how close Yamataian and Neko bodies are) — it would be like you starting as a human and asking to become a sentient gorilla purely for tactical advantage. The gorillas will know you are not one of them and, despite being polite, will treat you differently.

OOCly ... I'll just say this: It won't help you survive an encounter to be a Neko. Yamataians have their own advantages (emotional maturity, for one).

 

[Soresu]

That and male Nekovalkyrja are all but unheard of. Back when Sumaru was still played I had to remind the player that a male to male neko conversion wasn't done often at all. Before him it had only been performed once to my knowledge. So to this date there are only two male Nekovalkyrja in existence. Since you know, male Nekos kind of defeats the "Catgirl" chique and whole reason of them being solely catgirls. So it is a very rare thing and Doshii kind of hit the nail on the head with his post.

 

[Sanderford]

I appreciate the comments, but I wasn't asking about a physically male Nekovalkyrja body, just making sure that's understood.

I'm mostly asking these questions because of a character's background I'm hoping to work out.

 

[NeonPhoenix]

Since I have some questions about the Nekovalkyrja, can I hijack the thread ad ask a few of my own instead of making a new thread ?

Assuming that I can, my questions would be as follows.

1. On the subject of training. I understand that a Nekovalkyrja received a large portion of its knowledge via download and there is a ninety day social conditioning area. This in mind, would it be worth it to play the Neko receiving this training when much of the knowledge is downloaded or would it be better if you simply played her from her first assignment aboard a ship ?

2. Say I wanted to take the Neko part of the NekoValkyrja a bit farther and add things like slightly elongated sharp caninines or sharp nails that could extend slightly or maybe even something like a tail or slitted iris's?

3.How would a Neko become a samurai ? Is the position offered to them in recognition for valor or great deeds or are they selected from a pool of candidates who have applied for the position ? If the former is the case, what would a Neko have to do to earn a invitation to become a Samurai ?

 

[Wes]

1. Typically players start their character off with the first assignment, since there's no specific roleplay plot for the neko social conditioning (and thus that is not recommended). I don't think anyone has roleplayed the conditioning out before.

2. Some Nekovalkyrja have the ability to alter their physical features (how much varies by model). Yamataians are more flexible this way than Nekovalkyrja because standardization is desirable in the military and uniqueness is more valued on the civilian side.

Watch out for those grammar errors; apostrophes are basically never used to make a word plural.

3. Nekovalkyrja Samurai, at least for the Ketsurui Clan (the largest body of "samurai" neko) are born into their jobs and go through extensive training. Not all Ketsurui Samurai have been born into it. Some have been able to join; however, it is extremely rare and the number of samurai that have been "hired" rather than created can be counted on one hand. To attempt to do so, it would, at minimum, take some convincing of some high ranking clan member.

 

[NeonPhoenix]

4. Is it possible for a Neko to build muscule through specific training dispite her heavily regulated metabolic system. If not, is there a means short of having a body pre-made for her that she might gain more strength ?

 

[Wes]

4. Nekovalkyrja can beef up their body in the same "configuration options" way mentioned in the answer to question 2; however, the Neko are already fairly strong (in human terms) and have traditionally been speedy and additional musculature might slow them down so not many change from the (theoretically data-proven) default. As far as exercise, I don't see it having much effect on a Neko's physique as they're designed to stay constant (they neither get fat nor get buff).

 

[Fred]

My take, as far as I handle Kotori, is that her body performs like an elastic. Flexing an elastic and warming it up improves how far you can stretch it while it retains shape without damage. Maintenance and physical conditioning of the nekovalkyrja body is about the same to me.

To me, it opens up the activity of exercising to a nekovalkyrja player to those whom want to do it to have 'healthier' characters. Whether or not it makes a difference in the end is unimportant in light of portrayal of a character (an infantry neko keeping herself occupied while not in action can exercise so to look like she's keeping herself in readiness - maintain a routine).

 

[NeonPhoenix]

I'm a bit confused. I have looked all over the Wiki and the only thing that I have seen that could allow a Neko to change her apperance is her holographic projection ability. However, It seems as if from what is being said,that the Neko can change herself on a level beyond simple holographic projection. I understand that they can regrow limbs via their blood, so growing a entirely new body part doesn't sound impossible.

My take, as far as I handle Kotori, is that her body performs like an elastic. Flexing an elastic and warming it up improves how far you can stretch it while it retains shape without damage. Maintenance and physical conditioning of the nekovalkyrja body is about the same to me.

So, you mean that excercise can actually increase the performance parameters of a Neko? or is this all personal preference stuff that I am reading to far into ?

Please clarify this for me or point me to the paragraph that explains it already. I apologize for being slow, but I've done plenty of reasearch on my own The only Neko's I'm familar with are the NH-29 and the NH-28.

and one more related question.

When a Neko transfers her body for another, can she have that body tailored in great detail, aloung with physical augmentations that would boost her base stats ? or is it just asthetic tailoring they can request ?

 

[Fred]

Well, I did write up the NH-29. So instead of preferential, you could just see it as extra insights you can use since you asked about it and that you're digging for more details that comes out beyond the wiki entry and into the roleplay.

It's not inconsistency, but rather what comes out from interpretation beyond the base text. Kind of like when you write a character bio, personality and history and that as you play the character, subtle differences come out as he becomes 'used'.

So, those kind of discrepancy do pop up. For example, Doshii Jun roleplays his Yukari with many more references to her Operating System whereas my portrayal of Kotori has more of that information delivered more intuitively (i.e: "Yukari's OS reported to her that her energy reserves were dwindling" versus "Kotori's body felt worn out, her aching limbs begging for rest").

It's not wrong. It's just something unofficial that you can pick up from to help in your own preferred portrayal of your own character.

I don't believe that nekos are static. They are bio-synthetic lifeforms and they are standardized, but they are still living creatures. That's why I tend to encourage things that are more intuitive to the human roleplayer and open options while not hindering thematic flavor.

For example, I actually don't agree with Wes' mention that nekos do not get fat. I rather think that neko bodies regulate themselves and possess enough control to avoid integrating excess fat. In circumstances where the nekovalkyrja body is pushed through strenuous extremes, their energy reserves - fatty tissue - are going to deplete themselves. They'll start looking drawn, tired and even wasted like any other creatures since nekos do need to eat to survive.

They're not going to starve while looking as pretty as a neko that got three good meals in her everyday. The mind of a human roleplayer just wouldn't make much sense of that.

* * *

Forget 'base stats'. We don't really want to encourage one-upmanship of nekos based on stats and physical capabilities. Most NH-29s are for the most part equal and any advantage is non-significant in the roleplay itself (GMs rarely will consider it - it's just not evocative enough).

So, consider the changes aesthetic unless the bodytype itself is changed (NH-29 to NH-27. Forget the NH-28 NIWS - no player really gets access to that body; NH-27s are overpowered enough).