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Description
"For the Pnamn, sex is always a battle."
The two aliens circled each other in the arena, simultaneously slug-slow and serpent-quick as they darted their flexible heads in thrust and parry. With the heads fully extended, the tentacle-mane retracted, and the tough armor over their cone-shaped lower bodies pulled back, they reminded Enrick disquietingly of a pair of fencing penises. Which he supposed wasn't far from the truth.
"So this is how hermaphrodites do it." There was a hyacinth stink from the audience---the equivalent of mild applause--as one of the combatants faked up, then darted down and to the right, the dagger-like penis protruding from its oral opening knocked aside at the last moment by a frantic block by the defender's own genitalia.
"How long does this last?" Enrick hissed at the ambassador.
"Oh, not more than ten more minutes," she said, "both of them are getting tired. See how the blue markings on their torsos are fading?" She leaned back in her human-appropriate chair and sipped her drink. "I'm assuming you don't want to go to the after-party."
"Why did you bring me to see this, exactly?"
"You're going to have to deal with them," the ambassador said, "and I thought this would be the best way to demonstrate their attitude toward conflict. There is always a loser, and a winner. The loser," she pointed to one of the pnamns, now clearly flagging. Its fight was all defense now, a doomed struggle to beat off its opponent's penis. "So remember this. No matter whether you're doing business with them, or just having polite conversation, _this_ is the interaction they will try to have with you.
There was a *thunk* from the arena, like a fence post being driven through hard soil, and a wash of garlic and lemon from the pnamn audience.
"When that one's dick punctures the mantle of the other, the chalk shell will dissolve and the sperm will migrate through the body to the ovaries and impregnate the loser, who then has to bare the cost of bringing to term and raising the children." The ambassador smiled as she said it, and Enrick mentally crossed her off his list of potential conquests.
~~~
What would have happened if evolution had taken a wildly different turn and something like Pseudobiceros hancockanus colonized the land? Their basic anatomy is a hollow, cone-shaped abdomen filled with internal organs and covered by a rigid, chalk-like cage, then a protective sheath. Their upper body is a flexible neck/head, supported (and moved) by rings of erectile tissue around a core of cartilage and chalk. At the end of the neck/head is are the two eyes, the tentacle mane (previously gills, now an organ used for manipulation and chemo-reception), and the oral cavity, which also houses the penis. Mating takes place by forcing the penis through the body wall of the mate ([link] ).
What does this mean for the society of this species? I propose they would consider every contest to be a win/lose scenario. No ties, no mutual benefit, no non-zero-sum games, because if anything happens other than I-win-you-lose, then nobody gets pregnant, and we can't have that happening, can we? What do you think? Comment and tell me!

Also, this species and the scene above are supposed to occupy the same universe (or set of universes) as Nemo-Ramjet's alternate sophonts. (see here [link] )
What relationship do these two characters have with Ramjet's "she" in the sophont parade? I don't know.
Now that I've finished, I realize I should have done this in Nemo Ramjet's style :/

done while listening to: The Vor Game

Description
"For the Pnamn, sex is always a battle."
The two aliens circled each other in the arena, simultaneously slug-slow and serpent-quick as they darted their flexible heads in thrust and parry. With the heads fully extended, the tentacle-mane retracted, and the tough armor over their cone-shaped lower bodies pulled back, they reminded Enrick disquietingly of a pair of fencing penises. Which he supposed wasn't far from the truth.
"So this is how hermaphrodites do it." There was a hyacinth stink from the audience---the equivalent of mild applause--as one of the combatants faked up, then darted down and to the right, the dagger-like penis protruding from its oral opening knocked aside at the last moment by a frantic block by the defender's own genitalia.
"How long does this last?" Enrick hissed at the ambassador.
"Oh, not more than ten more minutes," she said, "both of them are getting tired. See how the blue markings on their torsos are fading?" She leaned back in her human-appropriate chair and sipped her drink. "I'm assuming you don't want to go to the after-party."
"Why did you bring me to see this, exactly?"
"You're going to have to deal with them," the ambassador said, "and I thought this would be the best way to demonstrate their attitude toward conflict. There is always a loser, and a winner. The loser," she pointed to one of the pnamns, now clearly flagging. Its fight was all defense now, a doomed struggle to beat off its opponent's penis. "So remember this. No matter whether you're doing business with them, or just having polite conversation, _this_ is the interaction they will try to have with you.
There was a *thunk* from the arena, like a fence post being driven through hard soil, and a wash of garlic and lemon from the pnamn audience.
"When that one's dick punctures the mantle of the other, the chalk shell will dissolve and the sperm will migrate through the body to the ovaries and impregnate the loser, who then has to bare the cost of bringing to term and raising the children." The ambassador smiled as she said it, and Enrick mentally crossed her off his list of potential conquests.
~~~
What would have happened if evolution had taken a wildly different turn and something like Pseudobiceros hancockanus colonized the land? Their basic anatomy is a hollow, cone-shaped abdomen filled with internal organs and covered by a rigid, chalk-like cage, then a protective sheath. Their upper body is a flexible neck/head, supported (and moved) by rings of erectile tissue around a core of cartilage and chalk. At the end of the neck/head is are the two eyes, the tentacle mane (previously gills, now an organ used for manipulation and chemo-reception), and the oral cavity, which also houses the penis. Mating takes place by forcing the penis through the body wall of the mate ([link] ).
What does this mean for the society of this species? I propose they would consider every contest to be a win/lose scenario. No ties, no mutual benefit, no non-zero-sum games, because if anything happens other than I-win-you-lose, then nobody gets pregnant, and we can't have that happening, can we? What do you think? Comment and tell me!

Also, this species and the scene above are supposed to occupy the same universe (or set of universes) as Nemo-Ramjet's alternate sophonts. (see here [link] )
What relationship do these two characters have with Ramjet's "she" in the sophont parade? I don't know.
Now that I've finished, I realize I should have done this in Nemo Ramjet's style :/

done while listening to: The Vor Game